Glass : 

Book i 

Copyright^ 0 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT; 



HOW TO TEACH 
RELIGION 



BY 

JOHN HENRY EVANS, A. B., 

Instructor in English at the Latter-day Saints' High School, 
Salt Lake City, Utah, and author of "One 
Hundred Years of Mormonism M 

AND 

P. JOSEPH JENSEN, A. B., 

Head of the Department of Education at the Latter-day 
Saints' High School, Salt Lake City, Utah 



The Deseret News, 
Salt Lake City, Utah, 
1912 



Copyright, 1912 
by 

JOHN HENRY EVANS and 
P. JOSEPH JENSEN, 




£C:,A3I24I3 



DEDICATION 



In the hope of raising the standard of instruction in our 
religious organizations, be it ever so little, this work is 
dedicated, first, to all our teachers of religion who 
feel that they do not know enough about teach- 
ing and who would like to learn more, and, 
secondly, to all parents who are anxious 
to give their children systematic in- 
tructions in the home, but 
who feel themselves lack- 
ing in a knowledge 
of how to do this 



PREFACE. 

THIS work was written in the be- 
lief that one may teach more ef- 
fectively by knowing how than 
by not knowing, and that the more clear- 
ly one knows the better one can do it. 

It aims to state in a clear, simple, and 
non-technical way some of the funda- 
mental principles of education and then 
to show how these may be made use of 
in the teaching of religion. 

No doubt, in aiming at a popular state- 
ment of these principles we have lost 
something in technical accuracy, but we 
have preferred to be understood by those 
for whom we have written than to be 
commended for strictly professional vir- 
tues by those who may never read our 
book. 

"How to Teach Religion" grew, first, 
out of a general demand for such a work 
in the Religion Classes of the Church, 
secondly, out of a request that such a one 
be written for the use of instructors in 
the priesthood quorums, and, thirdly, out 
[5] 



How to Teach Religion 



of a feeling that a work of this sort might 
be welcomed by teachers in other re- 
ligious organizations and also by parents 
in such stakes as have one evening spe- 
cifically set aside for the home. 

The book is equally adapted for the 
work of the Sunday School, the Primary 
Association, and the Improvement or- 
ganizations as for the organizations 
named above. Also it may be read with 
equal profit, we think, by parents and 
teachers individually or studied by the 
latter collectively, as, for instance, in, ward 
preparation meetings or stake unions. 
The work as here given was, before being 
published, used successfully in monthly 
stake meetings with workers of the Re- 
ligion Class in five different stakes, a few 
minutes at each meeting being devoted 
to some educational principle before the 
regular study of lessons was taken up. 

Of course, we have borrowed exten- 
sively. Our debt, however, is greatest to 
Professors Dewey, James, and Thorn- 
dike. 

[6] 



CONTENTS. 



I. The Teacher of Religion 9 

II. What the Teacher Has to Do .. . 16 

III. On Developing a Sense of Re- 

sponsibility 25 

IV. On the Training of Judgment. . 36 
V. The Meaning of Habit in Re- 
ligious Training 45 

VI. Things We Do Without Being 

Taught 56 

VII. How to Make a New Idea Plain 64 

VIII. What We Listen With 72 

IX. How to Make a Lesson Inter- 
esting 81 

X. On Certain Differences in Pupils 87 
XI. How we Store away Facts for 

Subsequent Use 94 

XII. How to Prepare a Lesson 103 

XIII. How to Conduct a Class 112 

XIV. How to Question a Class 120 

XV. How to Tell a Story 129 

XVI. An Illustrative Lesson 145 

XVII. A Chapter for the Parent 154 



I 



THE TEACHER OF RELIGION 




HAT can I do that will be of 
most worth to me? Every- 
body who has thought at all 



has asked himself this question. Young 
persons looking for a vocation, ask it. 
Grown men and women seeking earnestly 
to do good, ask it. If there were a person 
anywhere who had the reputation of be- 
ing able to answer the question for each 
individual, we would go to the ends of 
the earth to put this query: What can 
I do that will be of most worth to me? 

Now, it happens that we have on rec- 
ord the answer to this question. It is 
the answer, too, not of the wisest man in 
the world, but of the wisest Being in 
the universe, namely of God himself. 
Here it is : 

[9] 



How to Teach Religion 



"And now, behold, I say unto you, 
that the thing which will be of most 
worth unto you will be to declare repent- 
ance unto this people, that you may bring 
souls unto me, that you may rest with 
them in the kingdom of my Father." 

While these words were uttered spe- 
cifically to John Whitmer in the first 
years of this dispensation, still they are 
as true of every other person as of him, 
in one age as in another. 

But bringing souls to Christ is distinct- 
ively the work of the teacher. The 
preacher and the parent are teachers. 
So that the words quoted from the rev- 
elation are equivalent to saying that the 
thing of most worth in life is to be a re- 
ligious teacher in the broad sense of the 
word, to influence souls to do good. 

If, then, the service of teaching be the 
most important that can be undertaken, 
how ought it to be done? 

To begin with, it should be willing 
service. 

[10] 



The Teacher of Religion 



In the first days of the Church in our 
dispensation men were anxious to em- 
bark in the service of the Lord. They 
came from far and near to find out 
through the Prophet Joseph what the 
Lord would have them do. Among these 
was Father Smith, who went from his 
home in Manchester, New York, to Har- 
mony, Pennsylvania, to visit his son for 
this purpose. Of this number, too, were 
the Pratt brothers. All were anxious to 
know the will of the Lord concerning 
them, to know what He would have them 
do. This is pre-eminently the spirit of 
the teacher. 

When Jesus was about to depart, after 
his ministrations for forty days among 
his ancient disciples, He asked the Twelve 
what they desired of Him. Peter wished 
to go, at death, to his Master. But John 
wished for greater things. "Lord," he 
said, "give unto me power over death, 
that I may live and bring souls unto 
Thee!" This, too, was the spirit of the 
teacher. 

[in 



How to Teach Religion 



"Men should be anxiously engaged in 
a good cause/' says the Lord in a reve- 
lation to the Prophet, "and do many 
things of their own free will, and bring 
to pass much righteousness/' That is the 
true spirit — to be anxious to do good. The 
premium, in religious work as in every 
other, is put upon the willing labor. 

And so, we repeat, service in teaching 
religion ought to be willing. The true 
teacher virtually says in his heart, I want 
to do this. 

In the next place, the service given by 
the teacher should be intelligent service — 
and in four respects. 

(1) It goes without saying that he 
should know what he is expected to teach. 
He should study the subject-matter of 
his lessons, and that in as broad a way 
as he is able. This implies not merely 
that he gather material, but also that he 
get a main thought out of it for each les- 
son, that he develop that thought as best 
he can, and that he studv how best to give 
[12] 



The Teacher of Religion 



it so as to modify conduct in his class. 

(2) The teacher should know what 
qualifications he himself should have in 
order to make his work most effective. 
Now, the Lord has also told us what are 
the qualifications of one who wishes to do 
His work. "Remember faith," He de- 
clares, "virtue, knowledge, temperance, 
patience, brotherly kindness, godliness, 
charity, humility, diligence. " Let the 
teacher who reads this reflect on each 
of these words as specifically as he can, 
and he will get an idea of what they 
mean. 

(3) The teacher should, most of all, 
know his pupils — their likes and dislikes, 
their individual differences, their home 
and school and town environment, so 
as to take advantage of these in arousing 
interest in the subject he teaches. As 
most of the sections in this book discuss 
the pupil in these various aspects, we need 
not here say anything else on this topic. 

(4) The teacher should know also what 
he expects his pupils to become: This 

[13] 



How to Teach Religion 



point is discussed in detail in another 
section, but two things need to be men- 
tioned here. 

The first is, that he must teach ideas, or 
truths, since conduct cannot effectively be 
modified except through ideas. But he 
does not teach ideas for the sake of the 
ideas themselves. He teaches ideas be- 
cause he wishes them applied in the prac- 
tical life of his pupils. Of what service is it 
to know that one ought to be truthful 
if one often tells an untruth? 

Hence our second point, which is that 
whenever an idea is given that is at all 
practicable, it should be followed up till 
there are some results in conduct on the 
part of the class. To teach an idea is 
comparatively easy and requires little 
time ; to turn ideas into practical qualities 
and establishing these as habits of con- 
duct, is hard and takes much time and pa- 
tience. Knowledge, remember, is only one 
of ten items mentioned in the passage 
given above as the qualifications of the 
teacher. What we want, then, in all our 
[14] 



The Teacher of Religion 



work of instruction is not so much ideas 
about mercy, love, industry, virtue, in the 
minds of our young folks, as the qualities 
of mercy, love, industry, virtue in their 
everyday lives, "changing what is to 
what ought to be," so that the spirit of 
light may instruct the soul. 

Meanwhile, the teacher should often 
call to mind this fine passage: 

"O ye that embark in the service of 
God, see that ye serve Him with all your 
heart, might, mind, and strength, that 
ye may stand blameless before God at 
the last day. * * * For the field is 
white already to harvest, and lo, he that 
thrusteth in his sickle with his might, 
the same layeth up in store that he perish 
not, but bringeth salvation to his soul." 



[15] 



II 



WHAT THE TEACHER HAS TO DO 

"^T" THEN we wish to go on a jour- 
%/%/ ney we first consider our object 

* * in going, where we are to go, 
and how much wt can afford to spend on 
the trip. If we have a house to build we 
can do so to better purpose if we know be- 
forehand whether it is to be a barn, a 
residence, or a church. A professional 
watchmaker can mend our timepiece bet- 
ter than one who has not given watch- 
making any attention. A physician can 
deal more effectively with typhoid fever 
than one who knows nothing of medicine. 
In a word, a person can always do a bit 
of work, physical, mental, or spiritual, a 
great deal better when he has first learned 
how to do it. 

And teaching is no exception to the 
rule. It goes without saying that you can 
[16] 



What the Teacher Has to do 



re.ach your aim better in the class-room if 
you know something about the nature of 
the mind, something about the principles 
according to which it learns, and some- 
thing about what you are to teach, than 
you can if you have not given special 
attention to these subjects. And other 
things being the same, the more clearly 
you know these, the greater will be your 
success as a teacher. 

Now, what are we attempting to do 
when we teach? What is the teacher's 
specific problem? In reply we may say 
that every teacher who conducts a class 
is endeavoring, whether he knows it or 
not, to do two things : first, to give ideas 
to his pupils and, secondly, to get the 
children to respond to these ideas. Let 
us restate these purposes in some detail 
so as to grasp them fully. 

And first as to the giving of ideas. 

We cannot easily overestimate the im- 
portance, individually and socially, of this 
matter of giving and receiving ideas. The 
[17] 



How to Teach Religion 



boy Joseph Smith, for instance, got an 
idea from the New Testament that when 
he lacked wisdom he should pray for it. 
What followed? First, he meditated over 
the passage, then he went out into the 
grove near his father's house to apply it, 
and received as a result that splended first 
vision. This was the individual benefit 
to him. But out of that first revelation 
to the Prophet has, in the main, sprung 
what we know as "Mormonism." 

As a matter of fact, the range of the 
idea-getting apparatus of the child is tre- 
mendously wide, and it ought to be com- 
paratively easy to get the ideas the teach- 
er wishes to give, providing we go about 
it in the right way. 

First of all, there is the sense of touch. 
You take up a wooden ball in the hand; 
you feel the solid substance; the nerves 
carry the impulse to the brain; and the 
mind gets an idea of hardness and of 
roundness. Secondly, there is the sense 
of taste. If you put sugar or vinegar into 
the mouth there comes an idea of sweet- 
[18] 



What the Teacher Has to do 



ness or sourness. Thirdly, when we come 
near a rose and the aroma reaches the 
nostril, we have an idea of smell. In the 
fourth place, we have the sense of hearing. 
The ball drops on the floor, for instance; 
air-waves are created; these reach the 
brain through the auditory nerve ; and the 
result is an idea that the ball has fallen. 
The range of hearing varies from thirty- 
two vibrations per second to forty thou- 
sand, in the acutest ear. The fifth sense is 
of sight, produced by ether-waves varying 
from four hundred and forty trillions per 
second to seven hundred and ninety tril- 
lions per second. 

All these senses — touch, taste, smell, 
hearing, and sight — are the various ave- 
nues through which ideas reach the mind. 
They are all, moreover, of material ob- 
jects, beginning with solids, passing 
through liquids and air-waves, and ending 
in the most delicate ether-vibrations. But 
the important point here is the wide range 
of the idea-getting organism, the num- 
erous points of contact of the mind with 
[19] 



How to Teach Religion 



the outer world. Through one or more 
of these avenues to the mind the teacher 
is to give ideas to the children. 

So much for the first part of the tea- 
cher's problem — the means through 
which he gives ideas. We now come to 
the second part, namely, the response, or 
the expression of these ideas, on the part 
of the class. 

A word, in passing, on the importance 
of expression, educationally and relig- 
iously. 

Professor James used to say, "No im- 
pression without correlative expression/' 
This, he declared, should be the maxim 
of every teacher. The ultimate purpose 
of all teaching is behavior, conduct. To 
quote again from James, the teacher 
should regard his task "as if it consisted 
chiefly and essentially in training the pu- 
pil to behavior; taking behavior, not in 
the narrow sense of his manners, but in 
the very widest possible sense of fit reac- 
tion on the circumstances into which he 
[20] 



What the Teacher Has to do 



may find himself brought by the vicissi- 
tudes of life * * * Not to speak, not 
to move, is one of the most important of 
our duties, on certain practical emer- 
gencies." 

That is the viewpoint of a modern phil- 
osopher. The viewpoint of religion is the 
same. "Be ye doers of the word," urges 
the sacred writer, "and not hearers only." 
And our Savior closed His great Sermon 
on the Mount with the solemn injunction 
that whosoever heard those sayings of 
His and did them would be likened to a 
wise man who built his house upon a 
rock. Similarly the Lord has declared in 
our own day that only he who "keepeth 
His commandments" can receive "a full- 
ness of truth." 

Now, expression, response, behavior, 
may, roughly speaking, take on one or all 
of the three following aspects : 

In the first place, the idea given may 
bring about right feeling in the child. 
When we hear or read of some one doing 
a kind act we immediately have a positive 
[21] 



How to Teach Religion 



pleasurable emotion, irrespective of 
whether or not we go and do likewise as a 
result. 

Or, in the next place, an idea may put 
us in a better attitude toward life. Was 
it not the author of the "American Revo- 
lution" who said that when a boy he 
thought of God as a terrible being whose 
eye was constantly on little Johnny Fiske 
searching for imperfections? The true 
conception of God, of course, is that while 
He knows our sins He is interested in 
our good works as well and takes joy in 
our progress ; and this idea puts us in- 
stantly in a proper mental attitude with 
respect to the external world and our duty 
in it. 

Or, thirdly, an idea may cause us to act, 
to do something. In some cases it may 
cause us not to act. As soon as the 
Prophet Joseph was in full possession of 
the idea of the sacred writer, he went out 
into the woods to put it to the proof. The 
action may not necessarily be immediate. 
And we must not be disappointed if it is 
[ 22 ] 



What the Teacher Has to do 



not. For "no truth, however abstract, is 
ever perceived, that will not probably at 
some time influence our earthly action," 
in its widest sense of speech, of writing, 
of yeses and noes, of tendencies from 
things and tendencies toward things, 
whether in the future or in the immediate 
present. 

In this connection it ought to be said 
that there is an idea-expressing apparatus 
as well as an idea-getting apparatus. The 
hands and the organs of speech, for exam- 
ple, are as much a part of us as the organs 
of touch and taste and hearing, and as 
such require attention in training. In 
the teaching of English, for instance, the 
instructor pays even more attention to 
writing and speaking — expression of ideas 
— than he does to the imparting of ideas 
on this subject. And so it should be in 
all training for religious and moral con- 
duct. The organs by which we express 
ideas need to be trained. When the teach- 
er has given the idea, only part of his 
work is done. The circuit must be com- 
[23] 



How to Teach Religion 



pleted, there must be expression of the 
idea in feeling, in attitude, in action. 

Nor is it enough that the teacher have 
a mere knowledge of this important fact. 
He must make a conscious effort to have 
the circuit complete — of idea and conse- 
quent action on the part of the pupil. 



[24] 



Ill 



ON DEVELOPING A SENSE OF 
RESPONSIBILITY 

IF you, as a teacher in any of our 
religious organizations, or as a parent 
in the home, had the absolute assur- 
ance that you could make of your class 
or your children whatever you wished 
them, what would that be? 

No doubt the answer in both cases 
would be the same — to make of them 
thorough-going Latter-day Saints. For 
if they are thorough-going Latter-day 
Saints, you know that they will try to be 
good citizens, to be moral and intelligent 
— in a word, to be good men and women 
in every activity of life. To be a Latter- 
day Saint, however, means not only that 
we do certain things but that we do them 
voluntarily, that we choose to do them. 

Hence we purpose in this section to 
point out the necessity of giving attention 
[25] 



How to Teach Religion 



to this element of choice in the education 
of our youth, to show how foundational 
it is in human character, and, so far as 
may be, to indicate the lines along which 
development should take place. 

Beyond all question the principal of 
free agency is one of the things essential 
to the existence of intelligence — it is one 
of the fundamental things about us. We 
exercised our agency in our spirit-state 
before we came here. Adam and Eve 
had their right of choice before the Fall. 
Indeed prior to our earth-existence the 
Lord decreed that man here should be 
free to choose his own course. Every per- 
son "is independent in that sphere in 
which God has placed" him, to act for 
himself, "otherwise there is no existence. " 
were we not free to choose for ourselves 
there could be no such principle as re- 
pentance in the gospel plan. 

The term "intelligence" comes from 
two Latin words, one of which means 
"between" and the other "choose." Now, 
[26] 



On Developing a Sense of Responsibility 



whenever we are confronted by a situa- 
tion involving a moral choice, we go up 
if we choose one way and down if we 
choose another. In the long run, every 
man must choose for himself. No one 
can do that for him. 

It follows, therefore, that in every edu- 
cational system, religious or secular, the 
training of the will-power should be fun- 
damental. And the matter becomes in- 
creasingly important as life becomes more 
and more complex, and choice difficult. 
Andrew D. White, in a recent statement, 
quotes approvingly from Dr. Arnold to 
the effect that "the one thing which is 
more important than any other in a stu- 
dent is a worthy exercise of the will- 
power, the ability to declare and to carry 
out the declaration 'I will' or 'I will not/ 
and to found this declaration and action 
on good reason." And Mr. White adds, 
"It is for this reason that I have always 
exhorted my students to cultivate the 
worthy exercise of will-power/' 
[27] 



How to Teach Religion 



Temptation assails us in the world as it 
assailed Christ in the wilderness. 

First, an appeal may be made to our 
senses. "If thou art the Son of God, 
command that these stones become 
bread !" To-day more perhaps than at 
any time in the past is it imperative that 
we train our bodily powers, because the 
more perfectly the organs of our body act 
as an instrument the more efficient will be 
our mind. But perfection of body comes 
usually only as we have overcome tempta- 
tion of the senses. Our bodily appetites 
must be controlled. The first glass must 
be turned down. The tobacco-habit must 
not be formed. And certain positive ha- 
bits must be established. All this not 
only in the interest of our spiritual wel- 
fare but of our material welfare as well. 
And so our boys and girls must be trained 
in the exercise of the power to choose 
between right and wrong, so that when 
they meet a moral crisis, small or great, 
they will pass it according to their best 
light at the time. 

[28] 



On Developing a Sense of Responsibility 



• Then, again, appeal may be made to 
spiritual pride. "If thou art the Son of 
God, cast thyself down" as a challenge 
to the protection of the Almighty. Our 
boys and girls must be trained so that, 
when this temptation comes, they will 
choose as Christ did. 

Finally, appeal may be made to our love 
of wealth and fame. "All the kingdoms 
of the world and the glory of them will 
I give thee if thou wilt bow down and 
worship me." Our youth on the farms 
and in business will come sooner or later 
to the point where they must choose be- 
tween God and gold. They may see the 
situation clearly — God on the one side, 
gold on the other. Indeed, they may 
want to go on the side of God. But unless 
their wills have been pretty well stiffened 
in a thousand minor temptations they 
will not choose the right side. Also pro- 
fessional men in the Church, may be 
tempted to make shipwreck of their faith 
in order to win greater success in their 
vocation. Their wills must have been 
[29] 



How to Teach Religion 



trained by the time they reach this point 
so that they can decide properly. 

But how can the religious teacher and 
the parent aid in the development of will- 
power in the youth? 

First, it must be clearly seen by him 
that the will-power cannot be developed 
in a day. We can not go to bed at night 
men of weak wills and rise in the morning 
men of great will-power. Power of will 
must grow silently through long and pa- 
tient exercise. One cannot go on yielding 
to a thousand petty temptations through 
a period of years and reasonably expect, 
at the end of this time, to have signal 
power of decision in the great issues of 
life. The first step in the training of the 
will-power in our young persons is there- 
fore for ourselves clearly to recognize 
this important fact and then to act on it. 

In the next place, every normal young 
person ought to know these two things : 
first, that he is responsible before God 
for his actions, and, secondly, that being 
[30] 



On Developing a Sense of Responsibility 



responsible, he must learn to choose for 
himself in every situation according to 
the best light he can obtain. 

Without entering into any niceties as 
to the influence of heredity and environ- 
ment in human conduct, we rest the case 
on the broad statement of individual re- 
sponsibility. In our Church children are 
accountable before the Lord when they 
are eight years old for what they do, 
and after that increasingly so. And this 
fact they should clearly understand, and 
that as early as possible. 

As to the other point, if children under- 
stand that they are expected to choose 
for themselves between alternatives of 
conduct, the probability is that they will 
put it into practice. Doubtless they will 
make many errors of judgment, but they 
should nevertheless be encouraged in cul- 
tivating their power of choice, for here 
alone, if anywhere, lies the key to their 
ultimate independence and progress. At 
all events if the parent or the teacher 
insists on deciding every question for the 
[31] ' 



How to Teach Religion 



child the result will be more or less in- 
ability in the child to decide rightly when 
there is no parent or teacher about. 

Lastly, children and young persons 
should be given opportunity and help by 
both parents and teachers to decide their 
own problems for themselves. 

A child has, say, fifty cents. Shall he 
be allowed to spend it, or must he save it? 
The average untrained child will doubt- 
less want to spend it, where it may be 
the best for him in this particular case to 
save it. Now, the parent may decide 
this question for the child by putting 
the money in the bank. A better way 
would be to balance, with the child, the 
present necessity against a future need, 
and so help him to decide for himself to 
put the money away. Thus two points 
may be gained : judgment in the child will 
be trained and his will-power, his power 
of wisely deciding for ; himself, be en- 
couraged. 

Again, a boy is offered a cigarette. 
Will he smoke it or not? Most likely 
[32] 



On Developing a Sense of Responsibility 



if his Sunday school teacher or his father 
is around, he will not smoke it. But 
what will he do if they are not? That is 
the test of his character. Then, too, if 
he takes it, will he take another and an- 
other and another till he has formed the 
habit of smoking? Here, at all events, 
is his opportunity to decide. It may not 
be possible for parent or teacher to train 
this boy in such a way as to make him 
say no ; but, surely, training him so that 
when he is confronted by this situation 
he will think about it, training him so 
that, thinking about the situation, he de- 
cides for himself, with a keen sense of 
his personal responsibility in the matter, 
the chances are he will say no. 

Once more, every boy who accepts the 
priesthood promises to do certain things, 
namely, attend to his duties in that call- 
ing. He should therefore perform those 
duties faithfully and intelligently. Press- 
ure from without may for a time induce 
him to do this. But the probability is 
that as soon as this pressure is removed 
[33] 



How to Teach Religion 



he will throw off the responsibility in his 
calling. Hence prior to and during this 
period of youth, parent and teacher alike 
should induce in him, if possible, a sense 
of his personal responsibility in the mat- 
ter so that he will choose to do his duty. 

According to the report of the Juvenile 
Court office in Salt Lake City for the 
year 1911 — and the fact implied in these 
figures is borne out by juvenile statistics 
all over the nation, — the ages of greatest 
delinquency are from thirteen to eighteen. 
The figures are: at 13 years the court 
had up for offenses 117 boys and girls; 
at 14, 105; at 15, 151; at 16, 135; at 17, 
116; whereas before that period the high- 
est number (at 12 years) was 89,and after- 
wards (at 18) was 46. This period repre- 
sents the age when the sense of independ- 
ence and free agency is greatest. At this 
age, the boy "knows more" than his fath- 
er. Now, if the boy and the girl have been 
carefully trained in choice and personal 
responsibility before they reach these 
ages, the chances are greatly lessened 
[34] 



On Developing a Sense of Responsibility 



that they will go wrong; the chances are 
greatly increased that they will pass safely 
this dangerous period. 

The whole point, then, is to make every 
event in the life of the boy or the girl 
an opportunity for the cultivation of judg- 
ment, of setting one thing over against 
another, and then of learning to choose 
for himself in the best light obtainable. 
A boy or a girl who has been thus trained 
in the exercise of judgment and of choice 
can be more safely trusted to shift for 
himself than would otherwise be possible; 
parent and teacher may feel confident 
that whatever situation confronts him 
where he must decide between right and 
wrong, he will choose the right. The law 
of growth in responsibility, therefore, is, 
place responsibility on the boy and girl, 
but not so much as will break them down, 
and let them act under it. 



[35] 



IV 



ON THE TRAINING OF JUDGMENT 

IN the preceding section we endeavor- 
ed to show that our young people 
should get, as early as possible, a 
sense of their individual responsibility and 
that they should receive special training 
in the exercise of personal choice. Here 
we intend to supplement that idea by an- 
other which grows out of it ; namely, that 
they should also be trained to think, with 
a view of judging justly and accurately. 
For if one must choose for oneself, it is 
clear that one must know how to choose, 
must get out of any given situation ex- 
actly the right thing to do. And if one 
is to do this in critical situations, one must 
have formed the habit of judging in small 
situations. We shall therefore discuss in 
this section the ways in which the class 
[36] 



On the Training of Judgment 



recitation may contribute to this desirable 
end. 

In every walk of life we have occasion 
to exercise our judgment — occasion to 
consider two alternatives of conduct for 
the purpose of choosing between them. 

As citizens and dwellers in society we 
have frequently to decide whether any 
given act of ours is that of the wolf or the 
brother. Our lawn needs water, say, at 
a certain hour, and the city ordinance 
forbids our using it at that particular 
time. We must set the condition of the 
grass over against the effects of violating 
a law. Or, again, we break out with a 
rash. Shall we hide it from the health 
officer at the risk of spreading the con- 
tagion or shall we sacrifice our own con- 
venience and freedom for the public 
good? 

As religious beings also we have to 
judge between alternatives of conduct. 
Teachings are given us that we must ac- 
cept or reject. It is sometimes necessary 
[37] 



How to Teach Religion 



to think in order to decide. We are block 
teachers, or we are bishops, or high coun- 
cilors, or we have been set apart to do a 
given work. In every one of these ca- 
pacities we are required to exercise judg- 
ment — to decide what to teach, to decide 
how to judge this case before us, to tell 
what to do in any given situation. 

Judging, like every other power of 
the mind, must be trained. We cannot 
go on taking snap judgments for many 
years and then reasonably expect to judge 
rightly in a complex case, merely because 
we may want to judge rightly. 

Now, in every act of judging there are 
several elements, which instructors who 
wish to cultivate this attribute in their 
pupils should keep in mind. These ele- 
ments are brought out in a revelation to 
the Prophet Joseph Smith concerning the 
procedure of the high council in cases 
before them. 

In the first place, the council is to hear 
the witnesses — to gather all of the facts 
[38] 



On the Training of Judgment 



in the case. Then the speakers who have 
been appointed on both sides are to speak. 
They analyze the evidence; they segre- 
gate that which is evidence from that 
which is not, with a view to getting at the 
facts that bear on the case. Thirdly, 
these men apply the evidence thus sifted 
to the particular case for the purpose of 
ascertaining whether a law of the Church 
has or has not been broken. The de- 
cision is next rendered by the president, 
who calls upon every councilor present to 
express his judgment by voting with or 
against him. Finally, under certain con- 
ditions all are urged to seek divine light 
on the situation through prayer. Every- 
thing done throughout the trial is to be 
done in equity and justice. 

While this illustration of the elements 
in the act of judging is taken from what 
the high council should do in the trial 
of a case before it, still this is what every 
one should do when he is called upon to 
judge in any given situation. 

He should have all the facts before him 
[39] 



How to Teach Religion 



as he judges, else he should withhold 
judgment, he should analyze these facts 
with a view to separating the true from 
the false; he should endeavor to ascertain 
the direction in which the facts point; and 
if he "lacks wisdom" he should "ask of 
God, that giveth to all men liberally and 
upbraideth not." Then he is in a position 
to decide what to do or what not to do. 
what to believe or what not to believe. 

Of course, not every case requires this 
great care in judging. When you meet 
your friend on the street, you decide in- 
stantly that it is So-and-so. It is not hard 
to tell whether you ought to go to town 
or not. These and thousands of other 
judgments you are called upon to make 
every week, are more or less easy. But 
there are others that are not easy except 
to those who habitually take snap judg- 
ments, who jump at conclusions. Shall 
a young man go to college or not? Is 
this particular person whom we thought 
our friend, a rascal after all or not? Is 
there really a clash between religion 
[40] 



On the Training of Judgment 



and science, and if not how can we re- 
move the seeming difference? Shall we 
get married in the temple or by a justice 
of the peace? Here are types of situa- 
tions that confront many. They are not 
to be disposed of in the same way in 
which you would decide the question as 
to whether or not we ought to go to 
town. They are critical situations — turn- 
ing points in our lives. 

The point here, however, is that judg- 
ment can be trained and should be trained, 
and that the teacher in our various or- 
ganizations may help in this training. But 
how? 

To begin with, the instructor who un- 
dertakes this, need not make young pupils 
conscious that he is doing it, but it should 
be a conscious matter with him. nor does 
the work need to be openly done, so to 
speak. The teacher does not say to his 
class, Now, to-day we are to train our 
judgment. Rather should he say, not to 
the class but to himself, How can I make 
[41] 



How to Teach Religion 



every recitation yield training to my pu- 
pils in judging, in thinking that will pro- 
duce sound judgment? 

Having decided to use every lesson in 
this way, the instructor will next proceed 
to keep in mind two things : First, he will 
not wander himself in the recitation nor 
allow the class to wander, but, secondly, 
he will hold everyone down to the subject 
of the lesson. Let us see how these sug- 
gestions work out. 

In almost every class there are tenden- 
cies, on the part of the teacher and on 
the part of the pupils, to bring to bear on 
the lesson ideas that do not belong in it. 
And this comes about in accordance with 
a natural process. The mind naturally 
associates one thing with another. One 
thing happens with another, and when- 
ever the one comes to mind the other 
comes to mind also. Or two things look 
alike, and the one brings w T ith it the other. 
You go to your matchbox, say, and find- 
ing only one match there, you wonder 
what you would do if you were out all 
[42] 



On the Training of Judgment 



alone with only one match and it went 
out. This calls up a story you were told 
once of a boy who went to look for horses 
in a snow storm, who got lost, and whose 
only match failed to kindle the damp 
wood. And so on, and so on. 

Now, this is not to think at all. It is 
in fact destructive of good thinking, if in- 
dulged in too much. And it must be stop- 
ped whenever it makes its appearance in 
the recitation — anyway, it would be stop- 
ped by a teacher who has made up his mind 
to train his class to think. Because think- 
ing requires that we turn away those 
things that come up which do not help us 
to keep to the subject. The mind that 
thinks, holds itself down to the subject. 
The teacher and the class have to stop 
themselves from saying what does not be- 
long to the subject. The instructor is the 
class-leader. If he has an idea of a unified, 
consistent, methodical recitation — why, 
the class will follow his lead through this 
sort of lesson, and naturally will think 
in a more orderly and thorough-going 
[43] 



How to Teach Religion 



manner than if the lesson proceeded in a 
hap-hazard, illogical way. 

The teacher who is anxious to give 
his pupils training in judgment will try- 
to get the right answer to his question. 
He will lead his pupils from wrong to 
right answers, from slovenly and inaccu- 
rate answers to answers that are accurate. 
Good thinking is not satisfied with a word 
that is nearly right, it seeks the word that 
is exactly right. 

That is what the teacher may do by 
way of training judgment in his class. 
And surely it is worth while to induce in 
them habits of discriminating between 
facts and not facts, between ideas that 
belong and ideas that do not belong, of 
weighing them in the balance, of deciding 
what importance is to be attached to this 
or that. But it all ought to be clone in a 
pleasant way, one that does not offend 
or make the recitation drag. 



[44] 



V 



THE MEANING OF HABIT IN RELIGIOUS 
TRAINING 

AVE you ever observed a young 
child just learning to talk? If so 
you know how difficult speech 
is in its earliest stages. The child has 
an idea and wishes to express it, but the 
organs of speech will not respond readily. 
They need training before they can be 
brought under the control of the mind. 
In this particular matter of speech, there- 
fore, the child's task is to get these organs 
under perfect control, so that they will do 
the bidding of the mind. 

What is true of the organs of speech, 
however, is equally true of all the organs 
of the body, of the body as a whole. The 
mind does not apparently come in direct 
contact with the grosser materials of the 
external world. The body is the special 
[45] 




How to Teach Religion 



medium by which this contact is brought 
about. In a sense, therefore, the body 
acts as the instrument of the mind or 
spirit. And one of the most important 
things in education is, to perfect this 
instrument so that it will help and not 
hinder the mind in an effort to attain its 
ends. Now, this is accomplished by 
means of good habits — the subject of the 
present section. 

The organs of the body must be 
trained. That is the first thing to remem- 
ber. They must be made the "ally of the 
mind instead of its enemy." 

To illustrate this thought: A young 
man is asked to drink a glass of beer. His 
mind says. "Don't drink it!" His bodily 
appetite may say, "Oh, drink it, this 
once won't matter!" What will he do? 
That depends much on what he has done 
before under the same situation. If he 
has always held out before, most pro- 
bably he will not drink it. But if he 
has yielded before, very likely he will 
[46] 



Habit in Religious Training 



yield again. His past is thrown in the 
balance and acts as the decisive weight. 
In the one case his body is his friend, 
in the other it is his enemy, 

Again, a man is tempted to break the 
Sabbath. The mind says, "keep the Sab- 
bath day holy! That is the law of God." 
His past habits may say, "But this work 
has to be done !" or, as is most likely, 
"We have to have some amusement!" 
What will that man do? It depends in 
great measure again on what he has done 
in the past. If he is in the habit of 
breaking the Sabbath, he will say yes; 
if he is in the habit of keeping it he will 
most likely say no. Habit is a strong 
determining factor. As before, the body 
is in one case an ally helping the spirit 
to do right, in the other case it is an 
enemy working in opposition. 

And this is true of habit in general. 
The organs of the body must be trained 
so as to respond readily to the wishes of 
the mind or spirit. Part of this work is 
done for us by nature, as when the very 
[47] 



How to Teach Religion 



young child cries or takes food from its 
mother's breast. It does this instinctive- 
ly. The body is so organized as to aid 
the mind in self-preservation. But in the 
main this work of training the body in 
proper responses to the spirit has to be 
done consciously by some one. We re- 
peat, therefore, education has for one of 
its main purposes the training of the 
bodily organs to act as the mind's ally 
instead of its enemy. 

A second fact it is well to know in the 
religious education of young persons is 
that the sooner we can get at this work 
of training the body to respond habitu- 
ally to the desires of the spirit the more 
effectively it can be done. 

The brain, which is the organ directly 
under the control of the mind, is com- 
posed of plastic material, the plasticity 
being the greatest during the time when 
the body is growing. It is like a liquid 
in the child, easily susceptible to im- 
pressions through the senses, but it 
[48] 



Habit in Religious Training 



thickens, so to speak, as the years come. 
Like the cement which workmen lay on 
our sidewalks, it is easily moulded at 
first and difficult afterwards. This is 
why children and young persons quickly 
pick up new ways and ideas and why 
older persons change their ways with dif- 
ficulty. For the same reason employers, 
when they want men to learn trades, 
always prefer young men and boys. 
Foreigners, as is well known, never learn 
to speak English with perfect accent 
when they begin the study of the lang- 
uage after the age of twenty-five or thirty. 

Hence, we repeat, the work of adapting 
this plastic material of the brain should 
be undertaken while it can be done to 
the best advantage and with the least 
effort. 

As already hinted and as we shall learn 
more in detail later on, there are two sets 
of actons that we perform. First, there 
are those things we do without being- 
taught, such as crying and laughing; and 
[49] 



How to Teach Religion 



then there are those we have to learn to 
do, like speaking and being just. 

The things we do without being taught 
are done instinctively or naturally, as we 
say. They require little or no thought 
in order to do them. We do not first 
decide to laugh and then laugh. On the 
contrary, whenever there is a laughable 
situation before us, w T e just laugh, and 
there an end — unless, of course, there 
is a reason why we should not do so. 

But that is not generally the case with 
those actions which we have to be taught. 
We have to learn to lace our shoes. We 
have to learn to be just under varying 
situations. 

What we should do, therefore, with 
these actions which we do by reason of 
having been trained, is to transfer as many 
of them as we can into the class of 
actions which we do without taking 
thought. That we can make such a trans- 
fer is very evident when we reflect on 
the things we do every day more or less 
habitually. There was a time, for in- 
[ 50] 



Habit in Religious Training 



stance, when we could not lace our shoes. 
Then there was a time when we laced 
them with considerable effort and atten- 
tion — our fingers being so unpracticed as 
to do the work but awkwardly. Now, 
however, we do not even think about it, 
so mechanical has this operation of lacing 
our shoes become. Indeed, we even think 
of something else while doing so. This 
has become possible only by reason of 
the fact that the oftener we do a given 
thing the easier it becomes, the less 
thought it requires, the more perfect the 
response of the bodily organs to the acti- 
vities of the mind. 

What is true of lacing our shoes is true 
of hundreds of other things that we do. 
Certain things we have been taught we 
have put into practice so many times that 
we have to all intents handed them over 
to habit and we do them without any 
special attention. What gentleman ever 
thinks of raising his hat when he meets 
a lady whom he knows — he does it with- 
out thinking. Prayer in some families 
[51] 



How to Teach Religion 



is a habit. Not to use tobacco and beer 
is a habit with many persons. 

Now, to illustrate, the sense of justice, 
as we have said, is one of those things 
to be aquired. Suppose an instructor is 
to teach this quality in a class. What 
is the most effective way of teaching it? 
First, he will make the idea clear — what 
it is to be just. He will do this mainly 
by giving instances where some one has 
acted justly in certain situations. But 
only a small part of his work is done when 
he has made the idea clear. He will 
therefore take care to make the class see 
situations in their own lives where this 
attribute requires to be exercised. But 
even this is not all. He will next endeav- 
or to get the class individually to act 
justly whenever a situation calls for it; 
for to have an idea about justice is of 
little or no value unless there follows it 
a just action. Moreover, he will examine 
the members of his class with a view to 
finding out whether they are practicing 
the idea; that is, he will call for reports 
[ 52 ] 



Habit in Religious Training 



from them. Finally, he will follow up 
the matter of acting justly till he gets 
something like a habit in his pupils, so 
that they act justly to the extent of their 
knowledge — which habit will give without 
a special effort of the mind in each in- 
dividual case. 

Perhaps it may not be out of place 
here to say that heretofore we have 
placed too much emphasis on ideas in 
our classes and too little on the practice 
of those ideas. At present, for the most 
part, what comes to mind when we have 
an idea? Another idea. But what should 
come even more readily is an action. We 
have set one idea against another idea, 
instead of an idea against its associated 
action. To-day we teach the idea of 
mercy, to-morrow the idea of kindness 
and the next day of observing the Sab- 
bath day. But what we should do is teach 
the class to act mercifully, and not stop 
till we have formed in them something 
of a habit of mercy in conduct. That 
we don't do this more is the reason why 
[53] 



How to Teach Religion 



our teaching is so often ineffectual — bring 
no result in action, in conduct. Instead 
of having behavior always in mind, we 
are mostly thinking of ideas. No number 
of ideas merely will bring a testimony 
of the truth, only the practice of truth will 
do this. "If ye keep my commandments ye 
shall know the truth." It is better to give 
a whole month in a class to the subject 
of Sabbath observance if we get our 
pupils in the habit of practicing this idea, 
than it is to cover all the principles of 
the gospel without getting the practice 
of them. 

This section cannot better be concluded 
than by giving five maxims to aid habit- 
formation quoted from Professor James. 

The first is that "in the acquisition of 
a new habit, or the leaving off of an old 
one, we must take care to launch our- 
selves with as strong and decided an ini- 
tiative as possible." An Austrian news- 
paper once contained an advertisement 
to the effect that "a certain Rudolph 
Somebody, promised fifty gulden reward 
[ 54 ] 



Habit in Religious Training 



to any one who after that date should 
find him at the wineshop." 

The second maxim is, "Never suffer 
an exception to occur till the new habit 
is securely rooted in your life." 

A third maxim is, "Seize the very first 
possible opportunity to act on every reso- 
lution you make, and on every prompting 
you may experience in the direction of 
the habits you aspire to gain." 

The fourth requires that we do not 
"preach too much to our pupils or abound 
in good talk in the abstract," but lie in 
wait rather for practical opportunities 
and be prompt to seize them as they pass, 
and "thus at one operation get our pupils 
both to think, to feel, and to do." 

The fifth maxim reads thus: "Keep the 
faculty of effort alive in you by a little 
gratuitous exercise every day." 



[55] 



VI 



THINGS WE DO WITHOUT BEING TAUGHT 



TEN-YEAR-OLD boy the other 



day said to his father: "Oh, I 



wish I could stop thinking, just 
for a little while ! Why can't we stop 
thinking ?" 

This child, you see, had stumbled upon 
the profound fact that consciousness is a 
"stream" that goes on and on. For, in 
truth, the thinking process never stops 
during our waking hours. Our pupils 
will get ideas whether there is a teacher 
about or not. To learn is as natural for 
them as to breath or to grow. The teach- 
er's great problem, as we have seen, is 
to get them to learn the right class of 
ideas. 

Similarly it is natural for the child to 
feel and act as a result of these ideas, 
whether it is educated to do so or not. 
The teacher must therefore never lose 




[56] 



Things We Do Without Being Taught 



sight of the fact that he has to deal with 
a mental activity in his pupils which al- 
ways goes on during waking hours and 
which constantly tends to express itself 
in one way or another. 

And what a wise provision in nature 
it is, this tendency in us to get ideas and 
to act, even before we are taught by our 
elders! For consider how impossible it 
would be for the teacher to get a hold 
on his pupils' attention or conduct so as 
to lead them if it were not for this native 
tendency to action on their part. "You 
may take a horse to the water, but you 
cannot make him drink, and so you may 
take a child to the schoolroom, but you 
cannot make him learn the new things 
you wish to impart, except by soliciting 
him in the first instance by something 
which makes him natively react. He 
must take the first step himself. He must 
do something before you can get your 
purchase on him." 

Now, this native tendency to feeling 
[57] 



How to Teach Religion 



and action in our pupils shows itself in 
various ways. 

One of these is curiosity. Who has not 
observed this manifestation in even small 
children? There is a strong impulse in 
them to learn the nature of anything new. 
It is a way nature has of urging the child 
to better knowing in its full extent. No- 
body has to tell the child to be curious. 
And so sometimes we take advantage 
of this strong native endowment in child- 
ren and young persons to teach them 
new ideas. 

Another of these native tendencies to 
action is fear. An infant has been known 
to cry on seeing a bearded stranger and 
hearing his voice. It did so through fear. 
Loud noises and unusual sights cause in 
the child a vague terror, which it express- 
es in crying and trembling. 

A third kind of activity which we do 
not have to be taught is imitation. 
Everybody is familiar with the instinct 
in a child to copy what it sees in others. 
It is as likelv to copy what is bad as what 
[58] 



Things We Do Without Being Taught 



is good. Probably it would not be an 
exaggeration to say that nine boys out 
of ten who smoke and swear and swagger 
do so through imitation. When our Sa- 
vior said, "Follow Me!" He was making 
an appeal to this instinct of imitation, 
which is one of the most powerful as well 
as one of the most useful. 

Emulation, a fourth native endowment 
of the human being, is imitation carried 
a little further. To imitate is a sort of 
copying. To emulate is to copy from a 
desire not to appear inferior. We may 
emulate our former self, that is, try to be 
at least as good; or we may emulate 
someone else. To some extent the ele- 
ment of rivalry enters into this in- 
stinct. 

And so we have a sixth form of this 
native tendency to action in pugnacity. 
By pugnacity we mean the fighting quali- 
ty, or instinct, in us. Pugnacity has often 
been condemned as a working motive, 
but since it is a God-given endowment 
it must be good for something. As a 
[59] 



How to Teach Religion 



matter of fact, it is a great spur to effort 
in almost everyone. "It need not be 
thought of merely in the form of physical 
combativeness. It can be taken in the 
sense of a general unwillingness to be 
beaten by any kind of difficulty." A Bish- 
op once told a boy, "Your widowed moth- 
er will never have a new house if she 
waits for you to build it." This roused 
all the pugnacity there was in the boy. 
"I'll build my mother a new house, Bish- 
op," he answered, "and you shall dedicate 
it, too." And the boy was as good as 
his word. He did build her a new house, 
and the Bishop dedicated it. 

We come, next, to love, the highest 
source of appeal in the human being. In 
every pupil there is the instinctive desire 
to please those whom he loves. "The 
teacher who succeeds in getting herself 
loved by the pupils will obtain results 
which one of a more forbidding tempera- 
ment finds it impossible to secure." 

Finally, there is the instinct which is 
not usually included in the list and which 
[60] 



Things We Do Without Being Taught 



may be termed the tendency in childhood 
to believe. There is good authority for 
the statement that belief is more deeply 
ingrained in human nature than doubt. 
Perhaps it would not be putting it too 
strongly to say that whereas belief is a 
native reaction, doubt is largely an out- 
growth of personal experience. At all 
events, the childish nature is trustful. It 
will believe what it is told unless it has 
reason for disbelief. Care must there- 
fore be exercised not only to give the 
child no cause for doubting what it is 
taught, but to take pains that nothing 
is taught it which will have to be out- 
grown in later life. "Fitch," says G. Stan- 
ley Hall, urges teachers of religion very 
strongly "to inculcate only that which 
they believe themselves with all their 
hearts and to shun all concerning which 
they have private misgivings * * * 
Aboslute candor, sincerity, teaching out 
of a full heart is necessary to prevent a 
sense of unreality and insincerity in the 
young." 

[ 61 ] 



How to Teach Religion 



But what is the practical value to the 
teacher of knowing what these instincts 
or native reactions are ? 

The business of the teacher, as we saw 
in section two, is to start activity in the 
pupil through certain ideas, which it 
would most probably not receive in any 
other way. But these ideas must find such 
appeals in him as will start this activity. 
Now, such appeals are found in fear, curi- 
osity, imitation, emulation, pugnacity, 
love, belief, and so on. 

To put this thought in a different way, 
suppose you have a class of twenty boys. 
You are to teach them, say, the duty of 
always telling the truth. Now, you can- 
not, most probably, find a response in all 
the boys through the same appeal. To 
one, the mere fact that God has enjoined 
truth-telling as a duty may be a sufficient 
incentive to activity. Another boy, to 
whom that would not appeal at all, might 
tell the truth out of a desire to imitate 
the example of Christ. A third might be 
induced to be truthful through a sheer 
[62] 



Things We Do Without Being Taught 



determination to conquer a bad habit. 
A fourth, it may be, is susceptible to the 
higher appeal of doing right because of his 
desire to do the right. A sixth may find 
an appeal only in the fear of evil conse- 
quences that invariably come from lying. 
And so on. 



[63] 



VII 



HOW TO MAKE A NEW IDEA PLAIN 

HOW does the mind receive new 
ideas? For if we can but find 
this out and then make use of 
this knowledge in teaching, we shall ex- 
perience little difficulty in having our pu- 
pils understand their lessons. 

Two instances will help to make this 
process clear. 

The first is taken from childhood. Two 
children were playing together, a little 
girl and her younger brother. "Are you 
going to smoke when you get a man?" 
the little girl asked. And when the boy 
replied that he was not, she added sagely, 
"Cause if you do, you'll get soot all over 
your insides !" 

Here, as will be seen, was an experience 
already in possession of the child mind — 
[64] 



How to Make a New Idea Plain 



that smoke passing through a stove-pipe 
tends to coat it with soot. Then there 
was the new experience — that of a man 
smoking tobacco. And the small mind 
readily and naturally concluded that the 
effect in the one case was the same as 
the effect in the other. 

The second instance is taken from the 
way in which our Savior, the great Teach- 
er, made ideas clear. It is found in the 
thirteenth chapter of Matthew. Jesus is 
here explaining the mysteries of the king- 
dom of heaven by means of parables, and 
He makes use of a wide variety of occu- 
pations with which His hearers are fa- 
miliar. For instance, we have the sower 
mentioned, the bread-maker, the mer- 
chant, the fisherman. The entire chapter 
may be studied with profit by the teacher, 
from this point of view. 

The sum of the matter, then is 
this: Our pupils come to us with what 
we may call the background of experi- 
ence, comprised of ideas and feelings 
which they have gathered at the home, 
[ 65 ] 



How to Teach Religion 



on the playground, at school, at work, in 
the mission-field, and elsewhere. And up 
against this background the teacher is to 
put the new idea. Now, if such back- 
ground as the child, the youth, or the 
grown-up has, will not enable him to 
grasp the new idea, then the new idea 
cannot be taught to him. That is all there 
is about it. Or, to put the same thing in 
another way, if there is nothing in the 
pupil's mind by which to interpret, or 
catch hold of, the new idea, then he will 
have trouble to learn it. Where there 
is sufficient background the old experi- 
ence reaches out to meet the new idea 
as it strives to be understood. 

That is why a professional teacher, 
when his nine-year-old child came home 
one morning from Sunday school asking 
to be shown the second chapter of Gene- 
sis because her teacher had assigned it 
for the next lesson, refused to let her read 
it, because he knew that there could not 
possibly be enough background of experi- 
ence in her life by wdiich to understand 
[66] 



How to Make a New Idea Plain 



that very abstract chapter; and not under- 
standing it, she would naturally and sure- 
ly form a distaste for the Bible. 

So much for the principle itself. But 
how are we to ^pply it in actual teaching? 

In the first place, the teacher must 
make a study of the pupil. He should 
know, as accurately as may be, what is his 
experience-range. What things has he ac- 
tually come in contact with in his life? 
The pupils of a certain school in an East- 
ern city had never seen a pig. What is the 
meaning of this fact, educationally? Why, 
merely this, that they would not under- 
stand if you said that such and such an 
animal resembled a pig. You would have 
to use some other term of comparison, else 
the idea would be lost. Dwellers in the city 
and dwellers in the country do not experi- 
ence altogether the same things. Those 
who live in this home have a wider range 
of ideas and feelings than those who live 
in that home. And so it goes. To know 
what things and ideas our pupil has ex- 
[67] 



How to Teach Religion 



perienced is, therefore, to have the means 
of making ideas clear to him. 

In the next place, a determined effort 
should be made to apply this principle 
in the preparation and the presentation 
of every lesson. To begin with, the teach- 
er should get as clear an idea as he can 
of the particular thought he wishes to 
leave with the class. After that his speci- 
fic problem is how best to get them to 
understand the thought. The sucessful 
teacher spends much time and thought in 
an effort to get the point of contact be- 
tween the new idea and the ideas already 
in the minds of the class. If the class be 
children, the means must be concrete and 
simple; but if the pupils be older, there 
will not be such a demand for concrete- 
ness and simplicity. But in every case 
care must be taken that the idea to be 
presented be not such as will find nothing 
in the background of experience of the 
individual class members with which to 
interpret that idea. 

On the necessity of thus adapting the 
[68] 



How to Make a New Idea Plain 



material of the lesson to the experience 
of the class too much emphasis cannot be 
placed. Some of the material which we 
give the children and young persons in 
our religious organizations is above their 
experience, and they cannot, therefore, 
understand it. Not understanding it, they 
are not interested, and not being interest- 
ed they may grow to dislike religion. 
Where the lesson covers a great deal of 
ground in the "outline" we happen to be 
following, our business should be to select 
the idea in it which will find the greatest 
number of points of contact with the ex- 
perience of the class. 

As an illustration of the whole idea we 
have tried to set forth in this section we 
cannot do better than refer to the method 
followed by the Lord in His dealings with 
the Prophet Joseph. 

One of the ordinances of the gospel 
concerning which new instruction was 
necessary was baptism. Now, presuma- 
bly the Lord could have given this in- 
[69] 



How to Teach Religion 



struction immediately after the first vi- 
sion. But he did not. He waited till Jo- 
seph's mind had been prepared for the re- 
ception of it. That preparation came when, 
during the course of the translation of 
the Nephite plates, he found there an ac- 
count of baptism, which caused him to 
think about it. Then was apparently the 
most opportune time for the revelation, 
and then was when John the Baptist was 
sent to him to explain what Joseph should 
do respecting this ordinance. We cannot 
think that this and scores of other similar 
instances in our own dispensation where 
we have the exemplification of education- 
al principles, were accidental, but are in- 
clined to think that even the Lord ob- 
serves natural principles in His revela- 
tions of truth to man. 

In this case the Lord was the teacher, 
Joseph Smith the pupil, and baptism by 
immersion for the remission of sin the 
truth to be taught. The first thing the 
Teacher did was to prepare the mind, 
and then to give the lesson in the most 
[70] 



How to Make a New Idea Plain 



concrete and simple manner. No teacher 
can improve on this divine example of 
teaching. 

This example is what we may well imi- 
tate whenever we have new ideas to teach. 
We must be sure, however, that what we 
have to give is a new idea. 



VIII 



WHAT WE LISTEN WITH 

IF, as we have already learned, the 
mind cannot stop thinking in its wak- 
ing hours, then it must be on some- 
thing all the time. But the teacher's con- 
cern is that the pupil's mind, for the reci- 
tation period at least, shall be on the sub- 
ject of the lesson rather than on some- 
thing else. And as he can not get and 
hold attention merely by calling for it, 
he must know and apply some of the 
principles according to which the mind 
naturally attends. Which is the object 
of the present section. 

Suppose you lift your eyes from this 
page and fix them on some object in the 
room, say, a picture on the wall. You 
can tell what the picture is because your 
mind is on it. At the same time, however, 
[72] 



What we Listen With 



you are aware of objects on each side of 
the picture and above and below. But 
you cannot tell much about them, except 
perhaps that they are other pictures or a 
rug on the floor. If you wish to see the 
picture on the right, say, it will be nec- 
essary for you to move your eye. In that 
event, the first picture will be more or less 
indistinct, though you are still aware of 
it, and you can tell the details of this sec- 
ond picture. 

Here, then, is what is known as your 
field of consciousness. The centre, or 
heart, of it is the picture you are looking 
at. The other objects you are aware of 
but are not looking at are, as we say, 
in the margin of consciousness. 

Now, what is true in this particular case 
of putting the mind on the picture, is true 
whenever we put our mind on anything. 
There is always the centre or heart of 
consciousness. But here and there and 
all over on the outside of that centre are 
objects clamoring for recognition. Now 
it is an idea, now a sound, now a smell, 
[73] 



How to Teach Religion 



now a thing to be seen or heard. Always 
there is something on the outside trying 
to get in, so to speak, through one or 
more of the roads to the brain — touch, 
taste, smell, hearing, sight — to steal away 
the heart of consciousness. If you are 
trying to teach your class an idea, your 
idea will have all sorts of rivals in the 
sights and sounds either in the class room 
or on the outside of the building. What 
you are endeavoring to do is to get the 
heart of their consciousness for your idea 
— to keep other objects in the margin, 
where they belong just now. 

Two interesting facts about attention 
should be noted. 

In the first place, the heart of con- 
sciousness may readily shift from what it 
is on at any given moment to what is in 
the margin. That sound outside the class 
room, for instance, may be a band playing. 
In this event, doubtless, the heart of con- 
sciousness will be shifted from your idea 
to the music. 

[74] 



What we Listen With 



In the next place,the heart of conscious- 
ness soon tires. Naturally it keeps going 
from one aspect to another. But it can be 
kept on different phases of the same object 
for a considerable time. You may prove 
this for yourself by drawing a square on 
a sheet of paper and trying to keep your 
mind on it for a minute or even for half a 
minute. It will be seen that in this brief 
space other objects have stolen the heart 
of consciousness from the square. But 
suppose you return your attention to the 
square and answer the following questions 
about it: How long are the sides? Are 
they crooked or straight? Are they all 
of the same shading? Are the angles 
right angles? It will be discovered that 
not only has the heart of consciousness 
been on the object for a longer time but 
that it has not once been stolen by any 
other object of thought. 

Out of this fact of the brevity of attend- 
ing we get two very important helps in 
teaching. 

[75] 



How to Teach Religion 



The first is the necessity of taking ad- 
vantage of this flitting of the attention 
by calling up different aspects of the sub- 
ject. If, for example, the idea to be pre- 
sented be truth-telling, the teacher might 
relate an instance in which is shown the 
good effects of this principle in a given 
person, then have the class relate similar 
instances from their own experience, and 
finally help them to see situations in their 
lives where they may apply it. One rea- 
son why the story holds the attention so 
well is that in it a fresh aspect or phase 
is constantly appearing. 

A good example of the application of 
this idea that attention requires a shifting 
of aspects is seen in the Religion Class 
organization and also in the Seventy's 
class. In the Religion Class we have 
two songs, or parts of songs, two prayers, 
a memory gem, a short incident, four or 
five testimonies by the children — all serv- 
ing usually to bring out a single truth. 
So with the class work of the Seventies. 
Here, besides the lesson, which is itself 
[76] 



What we Listen With 



broken up into well-defined phases, we 
have singing, scripture reading, a gem 
of thought, and the lesson — all on the 
same subject. 

Care should be taken, however, that 
the lesson in any particular case be on 
one subject and not on many subjects. 

The second practical suggestion grow- 
ing out of this brevity of attending is, 
Short sessions for children and young 
persons. 

The Religion Class, already instanced, 
follows this idea, for it has established 
the general rule that recitations must not 
exceed forty minutes for the older child- 
ren and thirty for the younger. Most 
Sunday schools dismiss the primary de- 
partment before the rest. It is so with 
the quorums of the lesser priesthood in 
many wards. Meetings and class reci- 
tations for adults, of course, may be long- 
er than for children and older boys and 
girls. 

The question of how to get the atten- 
[77] 



How to Teach Religion 



tion will be left for the following section. 
But two suggestions may be ventured here 
by way of preparation for that discussion. 
One is this : That the class should take on 
the physical attitude of attention. 

We have been told of President Brig- 
ham Young that no matter who came to 
see him at his office he gave him his 
undivided attention. "Sit down there, 
Brother," he would say, pointing to a 
chair near him. Then the President 
would face the visitor, hands on knees 
and body leaning slightly forward in a 
naturally attentive attitude, and then he 
would listen to all he had to say. By the 
time the visitor had ended, President 
Young would have the answer ready. "Do 
this or that, Brother," he would add. The 
person was dismissed, and another took 
his place, who was likewise listened to. 

Now, part of this concentrated atten- 
tion in President Young arose from the 
fact that he put himself in the proper 
physical attitude to begin with. Simi- 
[78] 



What we Listen With 



larly the teacher should insist that his class 
assume an attitude of attention. They 
should sit up straight, instead of leaning 
lazily on one another or on the desk. 
This fact of proper physical attitude will 
go a long way toward putting the class 
in the path of attention. 

Then, too, a device to revive flagging 
attention is to have the class answer in 
concert, where it can be properly done. 
An example of this device may be found 
in the Religion Class, where children re- 
peat the prayer after the one who is 
mouth. 

Since attention on the right thing 
is what we wish to get in the class, 
it is important to know how to get it. 
To do this there are two ways : we may 
first demand attention or secondly we 
may attract attention. While these may 
get attention they may not hold it. In 
order to hold it, the pupil must feel that 
he is getting some satisfaction. In de- 
manding, you merely ask the pupil to 
[79] 



How to Teach Religion 



will his attention to your thought; in at- 
tracting it, you offer something that calls 
for his attention. Interest is therefore 
the next principle to be considered, which 
will be done in the following section. 



[80] 



IX 



HOW TO MAKE A LESSON INTERESTING 

JUST as there are some things we do 
without being taught by anyone, so 
there are things we are natively in- 
terested in. And just as, in order to make 
a new idea clear, we must associate it 
with an idea already in the mind, so, in 
order to make an idea interesting, it is 
necessary to graft it on, so to speak, to 
something in which the mind has already 
an interest. This general statement it is 
the purpose of the present section to 
make plain. 

Everything we do is interesting to us, 
or else we would not do it. It is interest- 
ing, that is to say, either as a means or 
as an end. If we pay our tithing because 
we think it the proper thing to do, this 
principle has interest for us as an end; 
if we pay tithing because we wish to be 
[81] 



How to Teach Religion 



married in the temple, then the principle 
has interest for us as a means. 

There are two kinds of interest, native 
and acquired. By a native Interest we 
mean any object, or situation, outside of 
the mind that attracts our attention. 
Children have an interest in things, as 
opposed to abstract ideas or qualities, 
especially in things that move. Every 
normal young man has an interest in 
some particular young woman, and every 
normal young woman has an interest in 
some particular young man. So, too, 
parents have an interest in their children. 
These are all native interests because 
they exist independently of any teacher 
or teaching. 

An acquired interest is one that we get 
through experience and training. In 
working we learn to care for animals, 
to build houses, to sell goods over the 
counter. At school we learn to read, to 
write, and to cipher. At home we learn 
to be responsible, as when a man, who 
[ 82 ] 



How to Make a Lesson Interesting 



was to leave home for a few weeks, asked 
his ten-year-old son to see that the win- 
ter coal was ordered. These all are ac- 
quired interests for the reason that we 
have to learn them. 

Now, the aim of the religious teacher 
is to make religion a permanent interest 
for the young persons of the Church, and 
this can be done, if it be done at all, only 
by grafting this interest on an interest al- 
ready in their possession, either native 
or acquired. This work may be helped on 
by the application of two or three prac- 
tical suggestions. 

First, use should constantly be made 
of the native and acquired interests. In 
the case of children the senses must be 
employed. Pictures, whenever possible, 
should be used, and drawings on the 
blackboard. Stories and incidents, of 
course, should be told, as furnishing 
things and persons in action. And these 
ought almost invariably to be told rather 
than read. 

[83] 



How to Teach Religion 



In the youth the iove-interest may be 
employed to advantage. A particular 
young woman is the object of his in- 
terest. He wishes to be in her so- 
ciety always. Now, the principle of 
marriage as taught by the Church ex- 
actly coincides with this desire in the 
young man. But the marriage cere- 
mony, which must be performed in the 
temple, has to be preceded by a cer- 
tain kind of conduct. The young man 
must not use tobacco, he must be moral, 
he must pay tithing, and so on. His in- 
terest in the young woman of his choice, 
however, may lead him to find an interest 
in these religious principles. And so it 
may be with other spiritual truths. 

Again the teacher should make use of 
what we called the native reactions as a 
means of creating an interest in religion. 

There is, for example, curiosity, or the 
desire to learn something new. Naturally 
we acquire an interest in a thing by learn- 
ing something about it, by studying it. 
It would not be difficult, for instance, to 
[84] 



How to Make a Lesson Interesting 



induce the average boy to read Parley P. 
Pratt's Autobiography, one of the most 
entertaining books in our home literature, 
by talking about the book itself and the 
author and by reading some of the most 
interesting and appropriate parts, so that 
the boy would want to read the book for 
himself. What is true of a book is true 
also of a principle. The mere fact of get- 
ting information on it may excite an in- 
terest in it, which may bear fruit in prac- 
tice. Knowledge breeds interest. 

Also imitation may be made use of as a 
means of acquiring spiritual interests. 
Sometimes our boys go on missions be- 
cause a friend or relative has gone on 
one. The example of a good Sunday 
school, a good Religion Class, or a live 
quorum of the priesthood has often either 
created or greatly increased interest in 
others. 

A third way of obtaining interest in 
religion is to have the young persons do 
something. It is often the case that we 
[85] 



How to Teach Religion 



acquire an interest in a thing by merely 
doing it. Any one can point out young 
men in his neighborhood who have 
acquired a strong interest in religion 
by going on a mission. In some wards 
the priests adminster the sacrament as- 
sisted by the deacons, and this is bound 
to create an interest in religion. The 
Religion Class organization is based on 
the idea that to do a thing is to acquire 
an interest in it, and thus far has been 
successful in a high degree. 

It follows from all that we have said, 
in this section that the teacher should 
study at least as carefully the interests 
his class already have, native and ac- 
quired, as he does the subject to be taught 
them. For always it is interest that pulls 
the heart of consciousness, or attention. 



[86] 



X 



ON CERTAIN DIFFERENCES IN PUPILS 

IN the preceding seven sections we 
have set before the reader some fun- 
damental things in the nature of the 
mind with a view to getting principles 
to aid us in teaching. But this knowl- 
edge is not to be applied to every learner 
in the same way and under all circum- 
stances. An educational system is not a 
hopper where pupils go in at one end, 
big and little, and come out at the other 
end all of a size. Because we look some- 
what alike it does not follow that we have 
no differences. As a matter of fact, no 
two persons can be dealt with in quite 
the same way. To point out these dif- 
ferences is the task undertaken in this 
section. 

Some differences are constitutional. 
[87] 



How to Teach Religion 



First of all, we differ in our capacity 
or intelligence — our power to think. And 
this natively and not by reason of differ- 
ences in our opportunities for education. 
The Lord showed Abraham * f the intelli- 
gences that were organized before the 
world was," among whom "were many 
of the noble and great ones," showing 
that there were differences in this respect 
even in the pre-existent state. And this 
for the reason that "there are two spirits, 
one being more intelligent than the 
other." 

In the next place, we differ in our power 
to do. Of this difference the Apostles 
Peter and John, in the ancient Church, 
are good examples. Peter no sooner got 
an idea than he acted it out. He it was 
that first answered when Jesus asked a 
question of the disciples. John, on the 
contrary, was meditative. It is signifi- 
cant that Jesus chose Peter for president 
of the Church and John for counselor. 

A third difference lies in the power to 
[88] 



Differences in Pupils 



feel. Some persons, like the musician, 
are highly sensitive. Others there are 
who are not so sensitive. Some feel very 
strongly on things that concern them. 
Others are more or less apathetic and 
cannot be easily aroused. 

Fourthly, we differ in the strength of 
our instincts. In some persons fear is 
more pronounced than in others. So with 
the instinct of love, curiosity, pugnacity, 
and the rest. 

Finally, we differ greatly in the in- 
terests we have in things, and this with- 
out regard to whether these interests are 
native or acquired. One will be wholly 
absorbed in making money, another in 
literature, another in being helpful to 
others. In school we find some children 
who are strongly interested in drawing, 
others in arithmetic, and others in manual 
studies. 

These all, as we stated, are constitu- 
tional differences. But there are acquired 
differences also. 

[89] 



How to Teach Religion 



We have already pointed out the dif- 
ferences there are in our environment in 
the home, at the school, and at work 
and play. Some homes are places of cul- 
ture and refinement, whereas others lack 
these qualities almost entirely, and there 
are the various degress between. Books 
are plentiful in some homes, in others 
they are scarce or perhaps wholly absent. 
Usually the schools in the centres of popu- 
lation differ from those in rural districts. 
It makes a difference whether one is 
reared in the city or the country. Dr. G. 
Stanley Hall declared, after a careful inves- 
tigation, that children in the country have 
more ideas than children in the city, be- 
cause they have come in contact with 
more things — have had more experiences. 
So, too, with our surroundings at work 
and on the playground. Any given oc- 
cupation throws us into the society of a 
certain class of persons with certain ideals 
of life. Thus it makes a difference wheth- 
er you are a farmer, a carpenter, a clerk, 
[90] 



Differences in Pupils 



a doctor, a lawyer, a teacher, and so on. 

The point in all this is that this differ- 
ence in our environment compels us to 
take on certain differences in consequence 
of our environment, whereas were we all 
reared under exactly the same circum- 
stances the only differences we should 
have would be constitutional, that is, by 
reason of our native, individual character. 
But these, it must be remembered, are 
differences in degree, not in kind. 

Now, this fact that every person in the 
world differs from every other person in 
the world by reason of his inborn charac- 
ter and of his acquired characteristics, be- 
comes very helpful when we attempt to 
teach or to have anything to do with 
people. 

It is of service to presiding officers. 
Some one, for example, must be chosen 
as president of the deacons, and some one 
as president of the teachers. Now, with 
the knowledge of the fact that this boy 
[91] 



How to Teach Religion 



likes to do things while that boy likes to 
think, to reflect, surely one might make a 
better selection of officers for these quo- 
rums than without this knowledge. For, 
most likely, the boy of action, other things 
remaining the same, will make a better 
president, and the boy of thought a better 
counselor, than the reverse. 

It is of service also to parents, this fact 
that people differ in constitutional and 
acquired characteristics. Few parents 
but have observed more or less differ- 
ence between their children. The trouble 
is that these differences are sometimes 
not observed early enough, Parents some- 
times have only one way of dealing with 
their children, whereas with a knowledge 
of these differences constantly in mind, 
they will look about for a fit means of 
reaching each child, and will not attempt 
to use the same means with all alike. 
It is necessary, therefore, for the parent 
to take notice of the differences in their 
boys and girls and adopt such ways as 
[92] 



Difference in Pupils 



will bring the necessary results in each 
case. 

A knowledge of this difference in the 
natural and acquired characteristics is 
helpful to the teacher. No teacher but 
wants an orderly class. But to have an 
orderly class is quite another thing, as 
everybody knows. And yet all children 
and young persons in their hearts like 
order better than disorder. The trouble, 
most likely, is that the right appeal has 
not been made to them. Some will yield 
to kindness, some to ridicule and harsh- 
ness, and some only to fear of punish- 
ment. At all events, the same appeal will 
not find response in them all. 

The successful teacher, then, knowing 
that his pupils differ in their constitution- 
al and acquired characteristics, will study 
them at least as much as he does the sub- 
ject he teaches, with a view to getting 
as many avenues to their hearts as will be 
necessary to help them in acquiring an 
interest in the gospel. 

[93] 



XI 



HOW WE STORE AWAY FACTS FOR SUB- 
SEQUENT USE 

WHEN you stop to think about 
it, you cannot but wonder at 
the fact that a person can enter 
a room, listen to a recitation, and then 
go away with an idea which he may carry 
for the rest of his life. A wonderful 
thing! 

Now, this power of mind by which we 
remember, differs in different persons. In 
some it is "like wax to receive and marble 
to retain." In others it Is like water, 
which receives an impression easily, but 
as easily rises to obliterate it. 

With memory the teacher has much to 
do. He wishes his pupils to remember 
the ideas gained during a recitation. 
Hence, there are some things about this 
power which he must know and make 
[94] 



How we Store facts for Subsequent use 



use of so that the process of storing up 
ideas in the mind and of calling them up 
afterwards, shall be made easier. The 
teacher's problem, then, so far as memory 
is concerned, is this : How can I teach 
this lesson so that my pupils' minds shall 
be sure to retain and be quick and sure to 
recall ? 

To answer this question is the purpose 
of the present section. 

Memory, as has been suggested has 
two phases. First, there is the power 
of retaining an idea, of keeping it in mind, 
as we say. And, secondly, there is the 
power of calling it up after it has been 
stored there. 

Doubtless you have often said some- 
thing like this to yourself : "I know my 
thimble (or my tax receipt) is here in the 
house, but I can't just lay my hand on 
it." Similarly you may have had occasion 
to remark, "I know what his name is, 
but I can't get it off my tongue's end. 
It begins in 'w.' If you'll just go over 
[95] 



How to Teach Religion 



some names begining in that letter, I can 
tell it when you name it." And so when 
your friend goes over a lot of names 
"'begining in w," you all at once cry out, 
"That's it— Winfield!" 

Now, since in educational work an in- 
structor always wishes his pupils to be 
quick to recall, and sure, how can he help 
along this process. The answer, in a 
word, is, Put together what belongs to- 
gether and keep apart what should be 
separated. Let us see in detail what this 
means. 

Suppose, for example, you have a lesson 
on repentance to give. Your task, so far 
as memory is concerned, is to associate 
the word "repentance''' with its meaning, 
so that whenever the word comes to the 
mind of any of the class the meaning will 
come with it. This implies, of course, 
that the meaning will have been made 
clear to them. 

In the same way a thing must be con- 
nected with its name. A boy was asked 
by his mother what he had learned at 
[ 96 1 



How we Store facts for Subsequent use 



Sunday school that morning, and he re- 
plied that he had learned how Joseph 
Smith had found a set of dishes in the Hill 
Cumorah. The word "plates" had called 
up in his mind pieces of chinaware instead 
of the leaves of the Nephite volume. 
Also a principle must call up its related 
facts. In Matthew, chapter eighteen (ver- 
ses 21 and following) Jesus tells us of a 
man who was himself forgiven of a debt 
of about a million dollars, but who would 
not forgive one that owed him a trifling 
sum. The principle of forgiveness did 
not come to his mind with the name — 
that was his trouble. So, too, one line 
or passage of Scripture should be related 
with its context; as "This is my beloved 
Son, in whom I am well pleased" — spok- 
en to John Baptist; but to Joseph the 
Prophet, "This is my beloved Son, hear 
him," because of the different circum- 
stances under which these passages were 
given. 

That, then, is one way of helping to 
make remembering easy, to put together 
[97] 



How to Teach Religion 



what logically belongs together and make 
an association so that in our pupils' minds 
one shall call up the other. 

Another way to bring about this same 
result is to take advantage of what we 
called, a few sections back, the heart of 
consciousness, or attention. This may be 
done by recalling instead of merely re- 
peating. For when we recall, we put our 
whole mind upon the subject — which will 
naturally make it more vivid than mere 
repetition. But since we gave an entire 
section to this subject we need not discuss 
it further in this place. It would be well 
for the teacher to turn to that discussion 
now, so that it may be fresh on his mind. 

In nearly all our religious organizations 
there is properly more or less memory 
work. Hence we shall treat briefly of 
the value of learning by heart and some of 
the best ways of teaching it. 

Memory work has both an educational 
and a practical value. Educationally it 
gives a stock of ideas and at the same 
[98] 



How we Store facts for Subsequent use 



time an adequate expression of them. 
Every gem of thought we learn by heart 
is an idea which may at some time be 
useful in influencing our conduct. Also 
it is often expressed in choicer language 
than we may have at our command. 

As for the practical value of this sort 
of work, that is even more obvious than 
its educational value. Almost every one 
who belongs to the Church will have fre- 
quent occasion to quote the exact words 
of Scripture. To the missionary — and 
this term includes practically the whole 
male membership of the Church and a 
good many of the female membership — 
the ability to quote exactly is almost in- 
dispensable. 

And so there is ample justification for 
memorizing in our classes. But, of 
course, it must not be forgotten that there 
can be too much of it, and there is an 
effective and an ineffective way to do 
this. 

What is the best way to learn by heart ? 
How can any given gem of thought best 
[99] 



How to Teach Religion 



be taught ? Following are the steps to be 
observed. 

It is necessary, first, that those who 
are committing to memory should know 
the meaning of what they are learning. 
This thought evidently was not kept in 
mind in the case of the little boy who 
went home from Sunday school and told 
his mother he had learned a new song, 
which he proceeded to repeat in this as- 
tonishing manner: "Master, the tem- 
ple is raging, the pillars are tossing 
high," or in the case of that other 
lad who said the hymn sung at church 
was, "The wonderful cross-eyed bear/' 
whereas it was, "The wonderful cross I 
bear!" Equally ludicrous mistakes are 
made by some older persons also, as a 
good many instances we could relate 
would testify. So, we repeat, care must 
always be taken to see that the substance, 
the meaning, of what is learned by heart 
should be got as well as the words. 

Incidentally it might be remarked that 
the practice begun recently at Ogden of 
[100] 



How we Store facts for Subsequent use 



having some capable person, at special 
song services, explain the meaning of the 
several hymns rendered, is to be highly 
commended for the reason that the hymns 
and songs we sing have a great deal more 
significance for us when we know their 
history and significance. 

Now, in order to get this meaning of 
what we learn by heart the passage to be 
learned should be analyzed carefully. We 
should first think of the main parts and 
then fill in the various phrases and words. 

An illustration will make this clear. 
Suppose we are to teach the ninth article 
of faith. 

We first quote the article : "We be- 
lieve all that God has revealed, all that he 
does now reveal; and we believe that he 
will yet reveal many great and important 
things pertaining to the kingdom of God." 

Next we ask these two questions : First, 
what is this article about? The answer, 
no doubt, would be, "It is about revela- 
tion." Second, what revelation does it 
concern? And the answer would bring out 
[101] 



How to Teach Religion 



this thought : "It concerns what God has 
revealed, namely, in the Bible, the Book 
of Mormon, and the Doctrine and Cove- 
nants ; what He does now reveal, through 
the "living oracles" ; and what he may- 
yet reveal. Here, then, are the main 
parts of the article — three in number. 

We are ready now to fill in the phrases 
that belong to the expression of each part, 
which we proceed to do. Having done 
this, the article of faith is ours in a sense 
that it could not possibly be by mere 
iteration of the words till we can say 
them. To call up in the mind thus and to 
fill in, are far more effective than simply 
to repeat the words. 



[102] 



XII 



HOW TO PREPARE A LESSON 

IT goes without saying that a teacher 
should prepare any lesson he may 
have to present. For how shall he 
teach unless he have something to give 
and how shall he give unless he have 
first received? 

But to teach, as we have already stated 
in another section, implies a knowledge 
of what is to be taught and also of the 
natural workings of the mind in those 
who are to be instructed. In the pre- 
paration of lessons, therefore, we have 
these two things to remember : What we 
are to teach and whom we are to teach it 
to. 

The first question the teacher should 
think about when he sets out to prepare 
his lesson is, How can I best prepare the 
minds of my class to receive what I have 
[103] 



How to Teach Religion 



to give them? For the more alert and 
receptive those minds are the better. 

Now, the best possible way would be 
for each member to come with a question 
in his mind, of which the whole recitation 
should be the answer. In other words, 
if we had the use of some power by which, 
during the week before our class met, we 
could get our pupils to thinking upon the 
subject-matter of the lesson to be pre- 
sented, we should have an ideal prepara- 
tion of their minds. 

But since we cannot do this, we have 
to do the next best thing; namely, to start 
their minds to thinking, to make use of 
the ideas they already have. Hence the 
first question of the teacher, in preparing 
his lesson, becomes, How can I set their 
minds going, so to say, in the direction of 
the lesson? 

The second step in lesson-preparation 
is to get something to give the class. 
Xot a hundred things nor a dozen things, 
but one thing. Sometimes the teacher 
[ 104 ] 



How to Prepare a Lesson 



has to choose this out of a body of ma- 
terial found in an outline, sometimes he 
has to make up the lesson. That is im- 
material; the thing to remember is that 
he must have some one thought or idea 
which he is to elaborate into clearness. 
The recitation should be so conducted 
as to leave some one impression, so that 
every member shall be able to say at the 
close, the recitation was about such-and- 
such topic or subject. And it will not be 
so unless the lesson has been carefully 
prepared for. 

It is best always to set this down as the 
aim or purpose of the recitation. Here 
the teacher's problem is, what thought do 
I want my class to get out of this lesson? 
Writing this aim on paper requires little 
time and fixes it in the teacher's mind. 

A third step in the preparation of a 
lesson is to get the thought of the lesson 
well in hand. 

As guides in selecting the material the 
instructor has, first, the aim and, secondly, 
[105] 



How to Teach Religion 



the class. Whatever does not help to 
bring out the thought of the lesson should 
be left out of consideration. And then, 
too, it may be that some material which 
would help to bring out the thought 
would be too hard or too simple for the 
class which he happens to have — in which 
case it should be left out. 

Sometimes the material to be used in 
developing the lesson is narrative, in 
which event our task is comparatively 
easy; sometimes, however, it is a body 
of facts, in which case our task is more or 
less difficult. In either event, though, it 
must be mastered. The preparation of 
the lesson requires also the selection of 
other narratives or bodies of facts with 
which to compare and contrast the 
thought of the lesson. What these shall 
be, depends, of course, on the ages of 
those who belong to the class. Where 
we are dealing with young or immature 
minds the material must be concrete. 
For adult members it may be ideas or 
facts. 

[106] 



How to Prepare a Lesson 



After this, as a fourth step in the prep- 
aration of the lesson, comes the ques- 
tion, How can I get the minds of my 
class, now, to infer the main thought of 
this lesson — how can I lead them to infer 
the idea for themselves as a result of 
their reflection on the material presented? 

Note that this general idea is the last 
to come to the class, although, in the 
form of the aim, it was the first in the 
teacher's mind. In other words, he chooses 
the aim and then selects the material for 
its development, while they get the ma- 
terial first and out of that deduce the 
general truth of the lesson ; for the teach- 
er rarely states to his class what the aim 
of the recitation is, except in the form of 
the general question with which he starts 
their minds to thinking on the lesson at 
the opening of the recitation. 

Finally, the teacher asks himself how 
best to apply the lesson to the lives of the 
pupils. 

All along in this book we have empha- 
sized the need of conduct, behavior, as a 
[107] 



How to Teach Religion 



result of teaching. Indeed, the general 
aim of every lesson should be modifica- 
tion of conduct in those whom we teach. 
But every lesson presents also the specific 
question of how to modify conduct by 
the application of the particular idea de- 
veloped in the lesson. 

This application of the lesson-thought, 
again, should involve a knowledge of the 
particular members of the class we are 
teaching and what their special tempta- 
tions are, so far as the point in any given 
lesson is concerned. Generally when we 
know our class well and our community 
sins and virtues, we can tell how to apply 
our lessons. 

So much for the theory of preparation 
on the part of the teacher. How shall 
we do this in any given case ? The follow- 
ing illustration from the practice of our 
Savior, the greatest of all teachers, will 
serve to show this, not indeed as an ex- 
ample of preparation for a lesson, but as 
an example of His teaching, from which 
[ 108 ] 



How to Prepare a Lesson 



we may imply something as to the prep- 
aration of our lessons. It is taken from 
the twelfth chapter of Matthew (verses 
1-8) and the second chapter of Mark (ver- 
ses 23-28), which should be read. 

The minds of the contentious Pharisees 
are prepared to understand the truth He 
declares by a question, Is it lawful to 
pluck ears of corn on the Sabbath day? 
In the next place, Jesus has something to 
give them, which is a definite truth about 
the proper observance of this day. His 
aim might have been, What is the proper 
observance of the Sabbath? The third 
step is apparent — He was master of His 
material, for He used two other incidents 
familiar to them with which to compare 
this incident of the plucking of the corn — 
that of David and that of the priests. The 
fifth step is equally obvious, the general 
truth, which He expresses for them, that 
the Sabbath was made for man and not 
man for the Sabbath or that Christ is 
Lord also of the Sabbath. And the last 
step, the application, is left to His hearers. 
[1091 



How to Teach Religion 



The teacher who reads this section on 
how to prepare a lesson is no doubt by 
this time asking himself, what place is 
left for the operation of the Holy Spirit? 

The answer is, More place than there 
would be if the teacher had not prepared 
his lesson. Nothing can be surer than 
that God places no premium on ignorance 
or laziness. The Lord helps those who 
try to help themselves. Roughly speak- 
ing, there are two kinds of teachers using 
preparation or non-preparation as the 
basis of classification: The one class pre- 
pare without any thought of divine aid; 
the other class leave everything to the 
Lord, or more strictly speaking, to the 
impulse of the moment, which they fre- 
quently mistake for inspiration. The prop- 
er attitude in lesson-preparation is to 
seek divine aid in the preparation, to do 
one's utmost to think out the lesson with 
the mind open to the operations of the 
Holy Spirit. There is nothing inconsis- 
tent with the operations of the Spirit in 
the orderly process of thought, and when 
[110] 



How to Prepare a Lesson 



something suggests the abandonment of 
orderliness and coherence, the chances 
are that it is a mere impulse and not in- 
spiration. The keynote of every teacher 
should, therefore, be : Careful prepara- 
tion of every lesson, the light of human 
reason, labor, and experience being sup- 
plemented by the light of the Holy Spirit. 



[mi 



XIII 

HOW TO CONDUCT A CLASS 

IN nearly all that we have said thus 
far on the principles of education, the 
thing we have had in mind all along 
as one of our objective points was the class 
recitation. The class recitation, there- 
fore, is very important and should be 
conducted in the light of the best knowl- 
edge the teacher can get, not only of 
the subject to be taught but also, and 
especially, of the way in which the mind 
learns. 

To make this thought clearer, we have 
but to call to mind some of those princi- 
ples we have considered. 

One of them was how to make a new 
idea clear. We learned that, in a word, 
to make a new idea plain to the class it is 
necessary to connect it somehow with the 
ideas they already have in mind. Now, 
this principle is useful mainly in prepar- 
[112] 



How to Conduct a Class 



ing the minds of the class for what we 
are about to give. It is directty useful, 
that is to say, in the recitation. 

Another of those principles was that 
there are individual differences in the 
members of our class and that we must 
employ various appeals accordingly. This 
also is of use in the recitation. 

Again, we were told how to get atten- 
tion in the class. We have no particular 
use for this information till we come to 
conduct a recitation. This is true also 
of interest and the other educational prin- 
ciples discussed. 

We repeat, therefore, that the class re- 
citation is the place where we need to 
apply whatever principles we have been 
studying. 

As a matter of fact, however, all teach- 
ers apply one or more of them in their 
classes, even though they may not have 
studied any of these principles. Common 
sense and experience lead them to do 
many things in their teaching which 
books on teaching tell them they should 
[113] 



How to Teach Religion 



do. Besides, some persons are born 
teachers and have sucessful recitations, 
often without knowing that they are do- 
ing their work in harmony, for the most 
part, with the principles of teaching. 

Still a knowledge of these fundamental 
principles always makes teaching more 
effective. It gives a confidence and a 
sureness that can come in no other way. 
And then, too, even the best teachers 
make errors, which a knowledge of the 
principles of teaching may correct. 

In general, there may be one or more 
of three purposes of a recitation. Some- 
times we may wish to test the class in 
what they have studied, with a view to 
seeing whether they understand clearly 
the matter covered. Or, secondly, we 
may wish to introduce a new idea. Or, 
in the third place, we may wish to get 
the class to reflect on the subject of the 
lesson. Clearly the third purpose is of 
the most importance in teaching religion, 
even where the class may have carefully 
prepared the lesson. 

[114] 



How to Conduct a Class 



The recitation, in the main, should fol- 
low the plan worked out by the teacher 
in the preparation of the lesson. But it 
should not be followed so rigidly as not 
to admit of change in any respect where 
a change would seem obviously necessary. 
If, for instance, we have miscalculated 
the experience of our class, then we 
should not hesitate to change the plan 
to suit the situation as we find it. Every 
change, however, is a change for the 
worse — if the lesson has been thoughtful- 
ly planned — unless there is a good reason 
for it. Teachers should not allow a mere 
impulse or whim to alter their plans. 

The instructor is now ready for the 
various steps of the recitation. 

The first one is the preparation of the 
minds of the class for what is to be de- 
veloped in the recitation. Every recita- 
tion really begins with a problem. This 
problem is the aim of the lesson, stated, 
however, in the form of a question. Here, 
as already said, is the place where what 
[115] 



How to Teach Religion 



we said about how to make a new idea 
plain is of special use. Always there is an 
idea to make clear. Always too,something 
in the minds of the class should go out to 
meet the idea which the teacher is to 
give. This opening question will serve 
to start thought in them on the subject 
of the lesson. If it has done so, their 
minds will have been prepared for the 
subject. 

Secondly, comes the probable solution 
of the problem stated by the teacher in 
the opening question. That is to say, 
in reply to his question, will come answers 
from the class. Some of them will be 
correct, some incorrect, but whatever 
they are they constitute an attempt at a 
proper solution of the problem to be 
solved. 

In the third step, the teacher endeav- 
ors to get light on the problem from 
the lesson for the day. Having started 
the minds of his pupils lessonward, he 
may now say in effect, Let us see wheth- 
er our lesson will help us to arrive at a 
[116] 



How to Conduct a Class 



conclusion on this matter. Here, there- 
fore, he gets from the class or gives to 
them such material as he or they may 
have prepared. If the lesson be a story, he 
has an instance where So-and-so solved 
this problem for himself, and his other 
incidents will give other situations in 
other lives. Sometimes one of these may 
be an instance of contrast, where some- 
one has failed to solve the problem. 

Next comes the inference, by the class, 
of the general truth to be got from the 
lesson. This, all along, has been in the 
instructor's mind as the goal pointed out 
in the aim. But the class must neverthe- 
less think it out for themselves. They 
will be more interested in doing so, and, 
besides, it will be a means of helping 
them to reason and do things for them- 
selves. Now, if the teacher should have 
a passage of scripture or a stanza from 
one of the poets which exactly and beau- 
tifully expresses that truth, it may fitting- 
ly be given here and learned by the class 
as a memory gem. 

[117] 



How to Teach Religion 



All this done the instructor is ready 
for the application. Every recitation, as 
stated already more than once, has con- 
duct as its objective point. Merely to get 
an idea has little value ; practice of ideas 
is what we want. And so we should here 
endeavor to get the class to do something 
by way of carrying out the idea they have 
just learned. In what way, then, can this 
general truth be applied in the lives of 
the class? How can they be inspired to 
do something? What are the sins or 
virtues in our ward that call for the appli- 
cation of it? All these questions can best 
be answered by the teacher and the class 
together. 

As in the section on the teacher's prep- 
aration of the lesson, we go to the prac- 
tice followed by Christ, the Great Teach- 
er, for an illustration, and this time from 
the eighteenth chapter of Matthew (ver- 
ses 21-35). 

The lesson is on forgiveness. Peter has 
come to Christ with a question, "Lord, 
how oft shall my brother sin against me, 
[118] 



How to Conduct a Class 



and I forgive him?" Peter presently 
gives the probable answer, "Until seven 
times?" All this has started thought. 
Then Jesus gives the true answer — dis- 
cusses the lesson, so to speak — in which 
He relates a parable about the debt owing 
the king and a smaller debt owing the 
servant of the king by a third person. 
The inference from the incident is ob- 
vious : We ought to forgive our brother 
as often as he repents and asks forgive- 
ness. Here, as in the other, the applica- 
tion is left to the hearers. 



1119] 



XIV 



HOW TO QUESTION A CLASS 




DISCUSSION of the art of ask- 
ing questions rightfully belongs 
in the section on the class recita- 



tion, but the topic is so important as to 
require separate treatment. 

There are three purposes in asking 
questions of a class. 

One purpose is disciplinary. If a pupil 
is inattentive during the recitation, a 
question may wake him into attention. 

A more important function of the ques- 
tion is to test the pupil's knowledge. A 
lesson has been given, for instance, which 
the class was to prepare. At the next 
recitation the teacher is able to tell, by 
means of questions, whether the ideas 
in the lesson have been grasped. 

A third purpose of the question, more 
[120] 



How to Question a Class 



important still, especially in religious 
work, is to get the pupils to reflect. Else- 
where we stated that the main purpose of 
the recitation is to get the class to think- 
ing. One of the most effective means of 
doing this is the question. 

In forming questions the following 
points should be kept in mind. 

First, the teacher should be as free as 
possible from textbook, manual, or out- 
line. He ought to be free in two re- 
pects. He should not be dependent on 
the text-book for the wording of his ques- 
tions, neither should he follow the word- 
ing of the book in making his questions. 
Careful preparation of the lesson on his 
part will leave him free to give his whole 
mind to the recitation. And, besides, 
teaching will thus be more pleasant. 

Secondly, every question should be 
clear. This principle of clearness requires 
(1) that it have but one meaning and be 
specific. (2) that it have no word in it 
the members of the class are not likely to 
[121] 



How to Teach Religion 



understand, and (3) that it be reasonably 
brief, the briefer the better provided it be 
clear. 

Here the principle we discussed under 
the title "How to make an Idea Plain/' 
may be useful, for what is clear to a 
grown-up may not be so to a child. Or 
the question may deal with matters be- 
yond the child's grasp — in which case it 
should not be asked. A long, involved 
question is always more or less hard to 
understand; the mind has to make too 
much of an effort to follow the thought. 
Where we have a long question in mind, 
it is better to break it up into two or more 
short ones. 

In the third place, questions should be 
definite. A question may be indefinite 
by reason (1) of being too general, (2) 
of having more than one meaning, and 
(3) of containing words that are them- 
selves vague. What did Joseph Smith be- 
come? may mean to bring out the answer 
that he became an educated man, but that 
he became a martvr would be equally cor- 
[122] 



How to Question a Class 



rect. Whenever your questions are in- 
definite or vague, you may know that 
generally speaking the lesson is not very 
clear in your own mind. 

Fourthly, questions should lead some- 
where. Questions are asked, not to keep 
the class busy, but to develop the lesson. 
Every lesson, as we have already learned, 
should be about one thing not three or 
four things. There is some thought we 
want the class to get as a result of the 
recitation. Therefore the questions asked 
should lead up to that thought. This 
means, again, that the instructor must 
know exactly what he is going to teach 
and how he is going to teach it. 

As an illustration of what we mean by 
this last statement,let us suppose we were 
to teach a lesson from the New Testa- 
ment on what defiles a man, found in 
Mark, Chapter 7 (verses 1-23). 

"Then came together unto Him the 
Pharisees, and certain of the scribes,which 
came from Jerusalem. And when they 
[123] 



How to Teach Religion 



saw some of His disciples eat their bread 
with defiled (that is to say, with unwash- 
en) hands, they found fault. (For the 
Pharisees and all the Jews, except they 
wash their hands oft, eat not, holding the 
tradition of the elders. And when they 
come from the market, except they wash, 
they eat not) * * * Then the Phari- 
sees and scribes asked Him, Why walk 
not thy disciples according to the tradi- 
tion of the elders, but eat bread with un- 
washen hands? He answered and said 
unto them, Well hath Esaias prophesied 
of you hypocrites, as it is written, This 
people honoreth me with their lips, but 
their heart is far from me. Howbeit in 
vain do they worship me, teaching for 
doctrines the commandments of men. 
For, laying aside the commanment of 
God, ye hold the tradition of men, as the 
washing of pots and cups : and many other 
such like things ye do. And He said unto 
them, Full well ye reject the command- 
ment of God, that ye may keep your own 
tradition. For Moses said, Honor thy 
[124] 



How to Question a Class 



father and thy mother ; and, Whoso curs- 
eth father or mother, let him die the 
death. But ye say, if a man shall say to 
his father or mother, It is Corban (that is 
to say, a gift), by whatsoever thou might- 
est be profited by me; he shall be free. 
And ye suffer him no more to do ought 
for his father or his mother, making the 
word of God of none effect through your 
tradition, which ye have delivered. And 
many such like things do ye. 

"And when He had called all the people 
unto Him, He said unto them, Hearken 
unto me every one of you and understand. 
There is nothing from without a man, 
that entering into him can defile him, 
but the things that come out of him — 
those are they that defile the man. If any 
man have ears to hear, let him hear. And 
when He was entered into the house from 
the people, His disciples asked Him con- 
cerning the parable. And He saith unto 
them, Are ye so without understanding 
also? Do ye not perceive that whatso- 
ever thing from without entereth into 
[125] 



How to Teach Religion 



the man, it cannot defile him; because 
it entereth not into his heart, but into 
the belly, and goeth out into the draught, 
purging all meats? And He said, That 
which cometh out of the man, that defi- 
leth the man. For from within, out of 
the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, 
adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, 
covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lascivi- 
ousness, an evil eye, blasphemies, pride, 
foolishness. All these things come from 
within, and defile the man." 

Now, such questions as the following 
would at once develop the lesson, test the 
pupil's understanding,and create thought: 
(1) What action here described did the 
Pharisees find fault with? (2) What cus- 
tom of the Jews had the disciples disre- 
garded? (3) Where did the Jews get 
this custom? (4) With what practice 
of theirs did Jesus answer their com- 
plaint? (5) What commandment of the 
Lord did their practice violate ? (6) Why 
were these Scribes and Pharisees hypo- 
[126] 



How to Question a Class 



crites? (7) What lesson is taught in this 
incident? 

These are the main principles govern- 
ing the art of questioning a class. There 
are also others, of less importance. 

First, questions should be asked in a 
pleasant, natural, conversational tone, not 
made as a demand by the instructor. 

Secondly, in general, questions should 
be addressed to the entire class. That is, 
ask your question first, and then call on 
some one to answer it. Don't wait for 
the pupils to raise their hands, but call 
on them indiscriminately; for otherwise 
only a few in the class will be active. 
Remember that non-preparation is not 
the only reason why some of the class 
do not raise the hand. It may be 
modesty. 

Thirdly, ask questions, mainly, which 
demand more or less thought on the part 
of the pupils. Rarely should a question 
be asked that can be answered by Yes or 
No. 

[127] 



How to Teach Religion 



Finally, don't repeat the answers of the 
pupils, unless you need to do so in order 
to call special attention to it. 

Let the teacher study carefully this sec- 
tion with a view to improving his ques- 
tioning of the class. 



[128] 



XV 



HOW TO TELL A STORY 

WE have several times in these 
pages had occasion to point 
out the value of the story, or 
narrative, in the recitation, especially in 
the teaching of children and young per- 
sons. It is equally valuable as a means 
of interest and instruction in the home. 

But, as in everything else, there is a 
poor way of telling stories and there is 
a good way. A story, to be effective, 
must be well told. That goes without 
saying. But a well told story follows 
pretty closely certain principles of art. 
Hence both the teacher and the parent 
should give special attention to the ques- 
tion, How can I best tell this particular 
story that I want to use? 

And so it is deemed proper in a book 
like this to discuss some points that can 
profitably be kept in mind in story-telling. 
[129] 



How to Teach Religion 



Only recently, comparatively speaking, 
have we come to realize the great power 
of the story in the education of our youth. 
So far as stories are concerned, we are 
now doing for our young folks practically 
what the old poets did for the common 
people in ancient nations before reading 
and writing w r as general. Like the bard 
in early Greece, the minnesinger in early 
Germany, the troubadour in early France, 
and the gleeman in early England, who 
sang or chanted his ballad, epic, or other 
narrative poem, for the entertainment and 
edification of the populace, so educators 
have in recent years begun to urge 
strongly the importance of telling stories, 
in the school and in the home, as a means 
of arousing interest, gaining knowledge 
and awakening activity. 

That the wholesome story has this pow- 
er has always been more or less felt, if 
not consciously used in education. 

The "love of the story" says Hamilton 
W. Mabie, "is one of the expressions of 
the passion of the soul for a glimpse of 
[130] 



How to Tell a Story 



an order of life amid the chaos of happen- 
ings; for a setting of life which symbo- 
lizes the dignity of the actors in the play; 
for room in which to let men work out 
their instincts and risk their hearts in the 
great adventures of affection or action or 
exploration. Men and women, find in 
stories the opportunities and experiences 
which circumstances have denied them; 
they insist on the dramatization of life 
because they know that certain results 
inevitably follow certain actions, and cer- 
tain deeply interested conflicts and trag- 
edies are bound up with certain tempera- 
ments and types of character." 

In this strong native liking for the story 
chiefly lies its educational value. Boys 
and girls, men and women will listen to 
a story when nothing else can hold their 
attention. The story has action in it; the 
story has figures in it, moving about and 
playing their part — and this is the secret 
of its power over the mind. And, then 
too, wholesome stories teach indirectly. 
The qualities of frank generosity, of hardy 
[131] 



How to Teach Religion 



prowess, of courageous endurance, of 
stainless character tend naturally to be 
translated by the youthful reader into 
qualities of his own life, and so uplift 
him into better living. Besides, being 
concrete and suggestive rather than dog- 
matic, the story furnishes one of the clear- 
est and most impressive ways of convey- 
ing truth to the mind. Jesus, the great 
Teacher, made constant use of the story 
in the form of the parable. The parables 
of the good Samaritan, the sower, and 
the prodigal son have become enshrined 
among the great classics of the world. 

The story, therefore, should be em- 
ployed by the teacher of religion and also 
by the parent in the home as an effective 
means of interest and instruction. 

Two forms of the story the teacher 
of religion among us will have use for. 
There is, first, the story which is ready 
to hand, written out for him; and all he 
has to do is to tell what is there set down 
— no invention of details, to any apprecia- 
[ 132 ] 



How to Tell a Story 



ble effect, being required of him. Then, 
secondly, there is the story which he has 
to make up. He has merely the sugges- 
tion of a story in mind, the details and the 
order of the details he has to build into 
a well-rounded, united whole, with such 
art as he can call into use. And then 
both the story already made and the story 
of his own making have to be told in such 
a way as will catch and hold the atten- 
tion of whoever is to hear it. Let us 
therefore ascertain some of the principles 
according to which stories are to be con- 
structed and afterward such points as 
may help us in the telling of them.' 

The first thing to think of in making 
the story is the purpose which it is to 
serve. What do you want the narrative 
for? Because, in religious instruction, 
it is not a good thing to tell a story merely 
because something has to be done in the 
class and telling stories is the easiest way 
of keeping the class interested. There 
ought to be some aim or purpose in tell- 
ing it besides keeping the class quiet and 
[133] 



How to Teach Religion 



their minds occupied. The story should be 
used mainly to illustrate the truth to be 
imparted by the lesson. Say, then, that 
your lesson is on prayer or patience or 
courage in truth-telling, the teacher 
should be looking for material which he 
can build into a narrative to illustrate 
prayer or patience or courage in telling 
the truth. 

Having chosen his purpose and found 
his first suggestion of a story, the teacher 
proceeds to build it into one. In doing 
this he must keep three ideas in mind. 

The first is to get a central point. This 
central point coincides with his purpose 
in telling the story. If, say, his object 
in giving the story be to teach truth-tell- 
ing, then the central point of the story 
is the place where the character tells the 
truth where he might have told a false- 
hood. 

Secondly, the teacher must select from 
a mass of details only those details which 
help to bring out the point in the story. 
Pick up anywhere the first hint of a story 
[134] 



How to Tell a Story 



and you will soon learn that it is in the 
midst of a thousand other facts, some of 
which bear on the story but most of 
which do not. The task of the story-teller 
is to choose from the mass those which 
bear on his idea and rigidly to reject all 
those that do not so bear upon it. And 
this is by no means as easy as one would 
think. It requires thought, discrimina- 
tion, and a firm hold on the purpose of 
the story or the central point. 

Lastly, all these details that have been 
separated from the mass of details must 
be carefully arranged with a view to 
bringing out the point of the narrative. 
And this too requires thought. What must 
the hearer know before he can understand 
the story? what are the details of the 
action ? and how shall I make these point 
forward to the end and bring it out? — 
these are questions that every story-teller 
must answer, each in his own way. 

Two concrete instances — one from the 
Bible and one from the life of a modern 
[135] 



How to Teach Religion 



Church leader — will illustrate these steps 
in story-building. 

The Hebrew Scriptures furnish us with 
a great deal of material for stories. But 
rarely do we find stories there already 
made for us, especially if we are teaching 
children. The Bible was not written spe- 
cifically for children. And, besides, the 
language of the Bible is not in many re- 
spects, the tongue of to-day, but that of 
three hundred years ago. So, if we 
choose stories from that volume, it is 
necessary for us to leave out, to fill in, 
and to adapt material before children can 
understand them. Now, this matter of 
filling in, leaving out, and adapting is re- 
ally not difficult. It is not necessary to 
invent details. The filling in should be 
by way of giving the historical setting, 
of which there is not only a need, but an 
ample supply. All this gives the story 
body. But care must be taken that in 
the selection and arrangement the point 
is not obscured. 

Suppose, then, we are to give a lesson 
[136] 



How to Tell a Story 



on returning good for evil and are looking 
for a story from the Bible to illustrate 
it. An incident in the story of Joseph 
who was sold into Egypt, let us say, 
comes to mind. But that is in the midst 
of a mass of details from which it will 
have to be extracted. Obviously if the 
story is to illustrate the idea of returning 
good for evil, the central point will be the 
place where Joseph gives food and a home 
to his father and brothers. Attention 
must therefore be given to the mistreat- 
ment of him by his brothers and the cause 
— jealousy. One way to build up these de- 
tails is found in the followingarrangement. 

( 1 ) The hatred of his brothers for Joseph ; 

(2) the cause of this feeling in them — 
Joseph's dreams; (3) what they did in 
consequence of this hatred — sold him; (4) 
the famine in Palestine and in Egypt, 
including a statement of Joseph's power 
in the latter place; (5) the meeting of 
Joseph with his brothers; and (6) 
Joseph's treatment of them and his fath- 
er's household. 

[137] 



How to Teach Religion 



It will be noticed that much is left out 
of the story as it is given in Genesis. 
Having taken the purpose we have, the 
details omitted here are not necessary. 
The imprisonment of Joseph in Egypt 
really has no value in our story. The 
only facts in his Egyptian life that are 
of value here are that God was with him 
and that he rose in the king's favor. 

Another illustration is from the life of 
President Anthon H. Lund. In his biog- 
raphy we find the statement that after 
he joined the Church, while a mere boy, 
he preached a good deal, and that in an- 
swer to an offer of a free college educa- 
tion, made by a rich mill-owner and being 
made his heir, if he would become a Lu- 
theran preacher, he replied, "You have 
not money enough to buy my allegiance 
to the Church of God/' 

Suppose we were in search of a story 
to illustrate integrity to the truth and 
that we knew of this incident, how could 
we work it up into a good illustrative 
narrative? Having chosen that excellent 
[138] 



How to Tell a Story 



answer as the point and perhaps the end- 
ing, we would proceed to select such de- 
tails out of President Lund's early life 
as would help to bring out the point. 
Clearly facts about his birth and parent- 
age would have no business in our story; 
neither would any facts in his subsequent 
life. The following points in the main 
would be all we need : First, it might 
begin with the boy knocking at the door; 
proceed with a conversation between him 
and' the miller, which could bring out 
Anthon's desire for education and his 
lack of opportunity; and end with the 
offer and the refusal. 

This incident in President Lund's early 
life may be found in the "Young Wom- 
an's Journal" for May, 1912. 

And now what points should be kept 
in mind in the telling of stories? 

One very helpful suggetion is that the 
story, whether given in the home or in 
the class, would best be told rather than 
read. "The power of the story-teller lies 
[139] 



How to Teach Religion 



in his opportunity to let his message come 
from his eyes as well as his lips, a thing 
which is possible since he has neither 
book nor memory of printed page to bur- 
den him." But it lies also in his earnest- 
ness, his belief in what he is telling, his 
soulfulness and feeling; for if his soul and 
feeling do not enter into the story ; there 
will be little result from his telling it. 

We do not say that stories should 
never be read, for the beauty of some 
stories lies in the form in which they 
are told — in which case it may be 
better to read them. Then, again, some 
persons can read well who talk but poorly, 
and here, too, it might be permissible 
to read them. But the rule should be, 
Tell the stories rather than read them. 

"The gift of telling stories is an endow- 
ment of nature, like a beautiful voice or 
a talent for painting." But everyone, 
even the most gifted can improve in the 
power of good narration. We spend long 
years and much money in learning how to 
write and how to preach. Why not spend 
[140] 



How to Tell a Story 



a. little time and, if necessary, some money 
in learning to tell stories — the art that 
carries so much joy with it? That this 
can be profitably done by any one who 
wishes to cultivate the art, consideration 
of two simple points will show. 

First, study the art. Take some good 
stories, like "Ruth" and "Esther" in the 
Bible, or the "Great Stone Face" by Haw- 
thorne, and notice these features about 
them : the point, what is said, the bearing 
of everything on the point, and, especially, 
what is not said that could be said. On 
this last head it might be added that more 
trouble arises from saying what is not 
needed than in leaving out somthing that 
should be said. 

And, secondly, avail yourself of every 
opportunity to hear the best story-tellers. 
"Hearing stories told by artists" is one 
of the best ways of acquiring unconscious- 
ly the ideal of the story-teller. 

The work recently undertaken by the 
Improvement Associations in story-tell- 
ing contests cannot be too highly com- 
[ 141 ] 



How to Teach Religion 



mended. This beautiful art has been too 
long neglected among us. There is just 
as much place for the story-teller as for 
the preacher, as witness the stories of 
"Ruth" and "Esther" and "Joseph" in 
the Bible. Encouragement could be 
given this art in the home also. How 
many parents nowadays take the time 
and pains to culivate it with their chil- 
dren as compared with parents in the 
olden time ? And yet there is no people 
on the earth to whom the art of telling 
stories could be more serviceable. 

That is one suggestion — tell rather 
than read the story. Another is this : 
Doirt patronize the boys and girls when 
you tell them stories. 

Xot long ago we heard an eleven-year- 
old girl say that she didn't like to go to 
Religion Class. When asked for her rea- 
son, she answered, "Because the teacher 
always talks to us as if we were little !" 
And she wasn't little — she was eleven 
years old! She objected to be talked 
down to. Dr. Winship, a Xew England 
[142] 



How to Tell a Story 



educator, used to tell of the humiliation 
and embarrassment of a boy when his 
father called him "Willie," and of his im- 
mediate elevation to self-respect on being 
called "Bill" or "Mr. Thompson." 

As a matter of fact, no one is keener 
in detecting that condescension, that pat- 
ronizing air so characteristic of some 
teachers, than children. It embarras- 
ses them. It angers them. It at once 
plunges them into a plane consciously be- 
low the teacher. Children must always 
be treated as human beings — men and 
women. Anyway, treat them as such, 
and they endeavor to respond. If the 
teacher makes them feel that he is treat- 
ing them as equals, their souls expand to 
meet the occasion. 

This does not mean, of course, that 
one must not use simple language, must 
not choose such material as will be of 
interest only to children. Simplicity does 
not necessarily imply condescension. One 
can speak to children in a manly and 
womanly fashion without being maw- 
[143] 



How to Teach Religion 



kish; can be child-like without being 
childish. This childishness, this patron- 
izing air, this mincing tone, characterizes 
also much of the literature written for 
children. And it is to be avoided in both 
the oral and the written word. 



I HI ! 



XVI 

AN ILLUSTRATIVE LESSON 



E have given, in the preced- 
ing sections, an idea of what 
the teacher of religion is ex- 
pected to do, some of the main quali- 
fications he should possess, the chief 
educational principles which he ought 
to know in order to teach to the best 
advantage, and the specific application 
of these to his particular work. There 
remains but one other thing that may be 
helpful to the practical teacher, and that 
is to take him before a class and illus- 
trate in a particular case how a lesson, 
according to these principles we have 
studied, should be conducted from first 
to last. 

The lesson we purpose to take is on 
charity, or love, defined in the Book of 
Mormon as the pure love of Christ. The 
teacher is supposed to have made such 
careful preparation as he is capable of, 
[145] 




How to Teach Religion 



following the suggestions we made in 
Section XII. He is now about to begin 
the recitation. 

The first thing he does is to connect, 
in a brief way, the thought which he is 
about to present with something which 
he has given in some previous lesson. It 
does not matter when that other lesson 
was given — last week, two weeks ago, or 
some months past; — the chief point is 
the association of this new idea with that 
old one. 

And so the instructor says, "At such 
and such a time" — naming the day or 
evening when the lesson was given — "we 
learned something about faith. Please 
tell us of an incident in which your faith 
has been strengthened.'" And he calls 
on Brother A to relate an incident. "On 
such and such an occasion" — again nam- 
ing a specific time — "we had a lesson on 
hope. Can you tell us something out of 
which your hope has come brighter?" 
Here he asks Brother B to respond. 
[146] 



An Illustrative Lesson 



After which he is ready to introuduce 
the new idea, the lesson for today. 

"The Lord has given many instructions 
to his chosen people at various times in 
the history of the world. Many of these 
are called commandments- Now, anyone 
who thinks, knows that these command- 
ments are not all of the same importance. 
Some are of greater importance than 
others. 

"For instance, Christ said that to sin 
against the Holy Ghost will not be for- 
given in this world nor the next. The 
commandment which we are to take up 
to-day is the greatest of all — it is the one 
which is more vital to us than any other. 

"What commandment do you think 
that is?" 

He pauses to give the class time to set 
their minds to work, for, observe, the 
question is_drrected to the whole class; 
the teacher does not first call on some 
one and then give his question. The class 
having had a little time in which to think, 
the instructor calls on Brother C to an- 
[147] 



How to Teach Religion 



swer it. Brother C, then, (or in the 
event that he cannot, some one else) pro- 
ceeds to give what we have called the 
probable solution. 

This question should have awakened 
thought looking in the direction of to- 
day's lesson. Then the answer given is 
developed, drawn out into sufficient detail 
to emphasize the fact that this particular 
commandment is the most important that 
God has given us. Let us suppose — 
which is very probable — that the words 
of Jesus (Mark 12:29-31) have been 
given as an answer to our question, the 
pupil may have only used verbal mem- 
ory. To make sure that the words are 
understood, we enlarge upon the answer 
till it is clear. 

The purpose of that opening question 
and its answer was to set the whole class 
to thinking. The next thing to do is to 
make use of the background of their ex- 
perience as a means of making plain our 
new idea. The instructor therefore says : 
[148] 



An Illustrative Lesson 



"Let us look at love as it shows itself 
in our own lives. In what way does love 
influence a young man in his relation to 
his sweetheart — Brother D ?" This should 
bring out such qualities as kindness and 
gentlemaniiness. "What influence does a 
mother's love exercise on her actions to- 
wards her son — Brother E?" This would 
probably bring out the qualities of pa- 
tience and long-suffering charity. "Lov- 
ing yourself, how do you treat your 
body — Brother F?" To bring out the 
care we give ourselves in the choice of 
the best food, clothes, care in sickness, 
etc. Such questions having brought out 
familiar qualities as the result of the per- 
sonal experiences of the class, Brother G 
might be called on to summarize the re- 
sult of the discussion. 

We are now ready for the further de- 
velopment of the lesson-thought. 

"Let us compare now," the teacher 
says, "what we have seen in our own lives 
with what the Savior teaches in the para- 
[149] 



How to Teach Religion 



ble of the 'Good Samaritan.' Will you 
relate the incident, Brother H?" In the 
event that this lesson has not been as- 
signed and the class has not been asked 
to prepare it, Brother H may be asked 
merely to read it. And, indeed, it may 
not be out of place to have it read any- 
way, since it is one of the most beautiful 
narratives in the language. 

The teacher then says, "State the 
several things which the good Samaritan 
did for the unfortunate man — Brother I. 
What influenced him to do it — Brother 
J? Compare what the good Samaritan 
did for his fellow with what Brother F 
said he would do for himself — Brother 
K. What commandment of the Lord did 
the good Samaritan keep — Brother L? 

"Now," continues the teacher, we have 
seen what loving our neighbor consists 
of. What reward do we get in this world 
for loving our neighbor thus — Brother 
M ? What reward do we get in the next 
world — Brother N?" 

After which the teacher proceeds : "We 
[150] 



An Illustrative Lesson 



have seen how love influences our actions' 
in respect to ourselves and in respect also 
to others. How does it affect us in re- 
spect to God — Brother O?" The answer 
to this question will bring out what John 
says, "For this is the love of God, that 
we keep his commandments." (I. John 5: 
8-) "What did Christ say to Peter on 
this point of love, just before His as- 
cension — Brother P?" (See John 21:15- 
17.) "What commandment accompanied 
the Savior's question — Brother Q? Give 
instances to show Peter's sincerity — 
Brother R." 

By way of contrast somebody might 
now be called on to tell or to read the in- 
cident about the rich young man, related 
in Mark 10:17-25. After which the 
teacher asks : "In what was the young 
man's heart centered — Brother S? How 
did it affect his attitude toward the 
Savior's invitation — Brother T? What 
was Christ's comment — Brother U? 
Compare the young man's actions with 
those of the Priest and the Levite in the 
[151] 



How to Teach Religion 



incident of the good Samaritan — Brother 
V. Contrast his action with that of Pe- 
ter—Brother W ." 

Next, attention may be called to what 
Paul says concerning the value of charity, 
or love. And here the teacher calls on 
some one to read the thirteenth chapter 
(verses 1-8) of First Corinthians. After 
which — "Name those things than which 
Paul says love is greater — Brother X. In 
what way does he say love manifests it- 
self — Brother Y? 

"Now," continues the instructor, "we 
have studied how love manifests itself in 
our conduct towards ourselves, toward 
our fellow-man, and toward God. Let us 
now enquire how it manifests itself in 
what the Lord does for us. In what great 
event in the history of the world does the 
love of the Father and the Son show it- 
self—Brother Z?" (See John 3:16; and 
15:13.) 

"In whom, now, have we studied the 
manifestation of love — Brother J? How 
does it modify our actions — Brother B ? 
[152] 



An Illustrative Lesson 



What, then, does it mean to love God and 
our neighbor — Brother S?" 

Finally, comes the application of this 
lesson-thought to the individual lives of 
the class. Each one of them should be 
led to look into his own life with a view 
to squaring his conduct with this great- 
est commandment. The lesson concludes 
with the practical question, "What can 
each of us do now by way of putting this 
lesson into use?" For, knowledge of a 
commandment only increases our respon- 
sibility, and our condemnation if we do 
not live according to its teachings. 



[153] 



XVII 



A CHAPTER FOR THE PARENT 

NO work written for teachers could 
properly treat the parent with 
neglect. For, in the first place, 
were it not for parents, we should not 
need teachers at all, and, secondly, the 
teacher can get along so much better in 
his work when the parent helps him. But 
this book, as already stated, was written 
partly for parents. And so there is a dou- 
ble reason for the present section. We 
shall endeavor in it to point out ways in 
which the parent may apply the principles 
we have here been discussing. 

Nothing can be plainer than that the 
parent, not the teacher, is held responsi- 
ble for the children. The parent may, all 
unconsciously, more and more shift this 
responsibility to the shoulders of the teach- 
er. But it is not really shifted. The Lord 
[154] 



A Chapter for the Parent 



will hold the parent accountable, not the 
teacher, should the child go wrong, 
through neglect. Two passages, the most 
striking on the subject in our literature, 
w T ill bring this thought home. 

"'Inasmuch as parents have children in 
Zion, or in any of her stakes which are 
organized, that teach them not to under- 
stand the doctrine of repentance, faith in 
Christ the Son of the living God, and of 
baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost 
by the laying on of hands when eight 
years old, the sin be upon the heads of 
the parents * * * And they shall al- 
so teach their children to pray and to walk 
uprightly before the Lord." 

And that the Lord does actually hold 
parents responsible for their children is 
evident from this second passage. 

"I have commanded you to bring up 
your children in light and truth. But 
verily I say unto you, my servant Freder- 
ick G. Williams, you have continued un- 
der this condemnation; you have not 
taught your children light and truth, ac- 
[155] 



How to Teach Religion 



cording to the commandments, and that 
wicked one hath power, as yet, over you, 
and this is the cause of your affliction." 
(Doc. & Cov, 93:38-42.) 

So much for the responsibility of par- 
ents in the spiritual training of their chil- 
dren. And now as to how this responsi- 
bility may be carried. 

' What is true of the teacher is even 
more true of the parent, namely, that he 
can train his children more effectively by 
knowing something about the natural op- 
erations of the mind. Besides, the parent 
has more and better opportunities for 
training his children than the teacher has. 
The teacher meets his class once a week, 
the parent meets his children not only 
every day, but is with them for a good 
part of every day. The parent, therefore, 
can see to their conduct, help them in 
carrying out the counsel, and learn 
whether or not they are succeeding and 
how well. 

Take the principles of education we 
[156] 



A Chapter for the Parent 



have explained in this book, for instance. 
Suppose the parent wishes to train his 
children in responsibility and choice — and 
what parent does not? He has a hundred 
chances to enforce this idea where the 
teacher has one. For it must be remem- 
bered that what we are endeavoring to 
get as parents is the actual choosing and 
being responsible by the children, not 
merely having the idea. The parent can 
therefore lie in wait for opportunities in 
which a sense of personal responsibility 
and the necessity of choosing for himself, 
and of choosing rightly, may be culti- 
vated, so that when the young man who 
has thus habituated himself to the exer- 
cise of this quality, leaves fiome for an 
outing or for school in the distant city 
where other temptations will try to allure 
him from the path of right, the proba- 
bility will be that he will choose safely 
and well, or choosing wrongly, will imme- 
diately see his error and correct it. And 
what is true of this idea of choice and 
responsibilitv is equally true of such prin- 
[157] 



How to Teach Religion 



ciples as the cultivation of judgment, tak- 
ing advantage of interest, habit forma- 
tion, and the others discussed here. 

Now, these principles of education may 
be applied under three circumstances. 

First, in helping the teacher. The par- 
ent should know what his children are 
taught at the various organizations of the 
Church, in order that he may take advan- 
tage of any opportunity that may come in 
his way to help them apply in their lives 
the teachings, since it is practice of the 
idea that counts rather than the mere idea 
taught. 

That it should do something to help fath- 
er or mother, it would be a good thing for 
the parent to know that it had been given 
that idea, for then he might encourage 
the expression of it in some act. Simi- 
larly, if the priest in his quorum had 
been taught the necessity of taking his 
part in administering the sacrament, the 
parent, if he knew this, might help the 
[158] 



A Chapter for the Parent 



teacher in getting the boy to perform this 
duty, which maybe he would not other- 
wise do. 

In the next place, the parent might take 
up systematically some educational work, 
either not done in any of the organiza- 
tions his children go to or not sufficiently 
emphasized. In the Granite stake, for in- 
stance, every Tuesday evening is set apart 
as a home night, when every member 
of the family is supposed to be at home, 
and the authorities of that stake urge par- 
ents to adopt some line of work, partly 
religious, partly social, on these occasions. 
Here is a splended opportunity for the 
sort of thing we are contending for. No 
doubt there is a strong tendency among 
our people for making the home a greater 
centre for our religious and social life, of 
which the rise of the parents' classes in 
the Sunday school and the movement in 
this Granite stake, are evidences. 

Let the parent, then, work in closer 
[ 159 ] 



How to Teach Religion 



sympathy with the teacher for greater 
economy and efficiency in the training of 
our children and young people, so that 
these may express in conduct their high- 
est possibilities. 



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